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Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel
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About This Book
Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true—yet never provable—continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life. Stephen Budiansky's Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel's voluminous letters and writings—including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts—to explore Gödel's profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It also offers an intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna, a haunting account of Gödel's and Jewish intellectuals' flight from Austria and Germany at the start of the Second World War, and a vivid re-creation of the early days of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, where Gödel and Einstein both worked. Eloquent and insightful, Journey to the Edge of Reason is a fully realized portrait of the odd, brilliant, and tormented man who has been called the greatest logician since Aristotle, and illuminates the far-reaching implications of Gödel's revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man's place in the cosmos.
Reviews
"Historian Budiansky (Oliver Wendell Holmes) recaps the revolutionary work of mathematician and logician Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) in this probing biography ..."
"it is not Budiansky's mathematical acumen but rather his emotional empathy that carries readers into the brilliant theorist's fatal descent into the depression and paranoia that cause irrational self-starvation."
"It's this emphasis on the human and humane implications of Gödel's life and work that gives this book its mesmerizing pull ..."
"[Budiansky] writes vividly, and the book overflows with fascinating detail."
"lthough Gödel remains the focus of this terrific book, the author delivers insightful portraits of a score of brilliant men and women ..."
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