Reflections On Kurt Godel

Author : Hao Wang
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262730877
Total Pages : 366 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Reflections on Kurt Gödel written by Hao Wang and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1990-03-14 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newton/Descartes. Einstein/Gödel. The seventeenth century had its scientific and philosophical geniuses. Why shouldn't ours have them as well? Kurt Gödel was indisputably one of the greatest thinkers of our time, and in this first extended treatment of his life and work, Hao Wang, who was in close contact with Gödel in his last years, brings out the full subtlety of Gödel's ideas and their connection with grand themes in the history of mathematics and philosophy. The subjects he covers include the completeness of elementary logic, the limits of formalization, the problem of evidence, the concept of set, the philosophy of mathematics, time, and relativity theory, metaphysics and religion, as well as general ideas on philosophy as a worldview. Wang, whose reflections on his colleague also serve to clarify his own philosophical thoughts, distinguishes his ideas from those of Gödel's and on points of agreement develops Gödel's views further. The book provides a generous array of information on and interpretation of the two main phases of Gödel's career - the years between 1924 and 1939 at the University of Vienna, which were marked by intense mathematical creativity, and the period from 1940 to his death in 1978, during which he was affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, a time in which Gödel's interests steadily shifted from questions of logic to metaphysics. And it also examines Gödel's relations with the Vienna Circle, his philosophical differences with Carnap and Wittgenstein, the intimate and mutually fruitful friendship with Einstein, and the periodic bouts of depression for which Gödel was hospitalized a number of times over the course of his life. A Bradford Book.

Author : Hao Wang
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 9780262261258
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book A Logical Journey written by Hao Wang and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1997-02-03 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hao Wang (1921-1995) was one of the few confidants of the great mathematician and logician Kurt Gödel. A Logical Journey is a continuation of Wang's Reflections on Gödel and also elaborates on discussions contained in From Mathematics to Philosophy. A decade in preparation, it contains important and unfamiliar insights into Gödel's views on a wide range of issues, from Platonism and the nature of logic, to minds and machines, the existence of God, and positivism and phenomenology. The impact of Gödel's theorem on twentieth-century thought is on par with that of Einstein's theory of relativity, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, or Keynesian economics. These previously unpublished intimate and informal conversations, however, bring to light and amplify Gödel's other major contributions to logic and philosophy. They reveal that there is much more in Gödel's philosophy of mathematics than is commonly believed, and more in his philosophy than his philosophy of mathematics. Wang writes that "it is even possible that his quite informal and loosely structured conversations with me, which I am freely using in this book, will turn out to be the fullest existing expression of the diverse components of his inadequately articulated general philosophy." The first two chapters are devoted to Gödel's life and mental development. In the chapters that follow, Wang illustrates the quest for overarching solutions and grand unifications of knowledge and action in Gödel's written speculations on God and an afterlife. He gives the background and a chronological summary of the conversations, considers Gödel's comments on philosophies and philosophers (his support of Husserl's phenomenology and his digressions on Kant and Wittgenstein), and his attempt to demonstrate the superiority of the mind's power over brains and machines. Three chapters are tied together by what Wang perceives to be Gödel's governing ideal of philosophy: an exact theory in which mathematics and Newtonian physics serve as a model for philosophy or metaphysics. Finally, in an epilog Wang sketches his own approach to philosophy in contrast to his interpretation of Gödel's outlook.

Author : Matthias Baaz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139498436
Total Pages : 541 pages
Book Rating : 4.32/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Kurt Gödel and the Foundations of Mathematics written by Matthias Baaz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume commemorates the life, work and foundational views of Kurt Gödel (1906–78), most famous for his hallmark works on the completeness of first-order logic, the incompleteness of number theory, and the consistency - with the other widely accepted axioms of set theory - of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum hypothesis. It explores current research, advances and ideas for future directions not only in the foundations of mathematics and logic, but also in the fields of computer science, artificial intelligence, physics, cosmology, philosophy, theology and the history of science. The discussion is supplemented by personal reflections from several scholars who knew Gödel personally, providing some interesting insights into his life. By putting his ideas and life's work into the context of current thinking and perceptions, this book will extend the impact of Gödel's fundamental work in mathematics, logic, philosophy and other disciplines for future generations of researchers.

Author : Richard L. Tieszen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019960620X
Total Pages : 258 pages
Book Rating : 4.07/5 ( download)

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Download or read book After Gödel written by Richard L. Tieszen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-05 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Tieszen analyzes, develops, and defends the writings of Kurt Gödel (1906-1978) on the philosophy and foundations of mathematics and logic. Gödel's relation to the work of Plato, Leibniz, Husserl, and Kant is examined, and a new type of platonic rationalism that requires rational intuition, called 'constituted platonism', is proposed.

Author : Hao Wang
Publisher : MIT Press (MA)
ISBN 13 : 9780262231275
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Reflections on Kurt Gödel written by Hao Wang and published by MIT Press (MA). This book was released on 1987-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kurt Godel was indisputably one of the greatest thinkers of our time, and in this first extended treatment of his life and work, Hao Wang, who was in close contact with Godel in his last years, brings out the full subtlety of Godel's ideas and their connection with grand themes in the history of mathematics and philosophy.

Author : Rebecca Goldstein
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393327604
Total Pages : 299 pages
Book Rating : 4.01/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Incompleteness written by Rebecca Goldstein and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2006-01-31 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An introduction to the life and thought of Kurt Gödel, who transformed our conception of math forever"--Provided by publisher.

Author : Hao Wang
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134884338
Total Pages : 445 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book From Mathematics to Philosophy (Routledge Revivals) written by Hao Wang and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-06-10 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1974. Despite the tendency of contemporary analytic philosophy to put logic and mathematics at a central position, the author argues it failed to appreciate or account for their rich content. Through discussions of such mathematical concepts as number, the continuum, set, proof and mechanical procedure, the author provides an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics and an internal criticism of the then current academic philosophy. The material presented is also an illustration of a new, more general method of approach called substantial factualism which the author asserts allows for the development of a more comprehensive philosophical position by not trivialising or distorting substantial facts of human knowledge.

Author : John Dawson
Publisher : A K Peters/CRC Press
ISBN 13 : 9781568812564
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.66/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Logical Dilemmas written by John Dawson and published by A K Peters/CRC Press. This book was released on 2005-06-06 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This authoritative biography of Kurt Goedel relates the life of this most important logician of our time to the development of the field. Goedel's seminal achievements that changed the perception and foundations of mathematics are explained in the context of his life from the turn of the century Austria to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Author : Jim Holt
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374717842
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book When Einstein Walked with Gödel written by Jim Holt and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Jim Holt, the New York Times bestselling author of Why Does the World Exist?, comes an entertaining and accessible guide to the most profound scientific and mathematical ideas of recent centuries in When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought. Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot. Holt offers a painless and playful introduction to many of our most beautiful but least understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and also invites us to consider why the greatest logician of the twentieth century believed the U.S. Constitution contained a terrible contradiction—and whether the universe truly has a future.

Author : John L. Casti
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 0786747609
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Godel written by John L. Casti and published by . This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kurt Gödel was an intellectual giant. His Incompleteness Theorem turned not only mathematics but also the whole world of science and philosophy on its head. Shattering hopes that logic would, in the end, allow us a complete understanding of the universe, Gödel's theorem also raised many provocative questions: What are the limits of rational thought? Can we ever fully understand the machines we build? Or the inner workings of our own minds? How should mathematicians proceed in the absence of complete certainty about their results? Equally legendary were Gödel's eccentricities, his close friendship with Albert Einstein, and his paranoid fear of germs that eventually led to his death from self-starvation. Now, in the first book for a general audience on this strange and brilliant thinker, John Casti and Werner DePauli bring the legend to life.