Gödel: A Life of Logic, the Mind, and Mathematics

by Werner DePauli, John L. Casti, Werner Depauli-Schimanovich

Book Overview

Kurt G was an intellectual giant. His Incompleteness Theorem turned not only mathematics but also the whole world of science and philosophy on its head. Equally legendary were G 's eccentricities, his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0738202746
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 1.0" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Biography: no -- Look at his great theorm: YES!

I got to look at the book at a bookstore before I bought it so I knew I wasn't getting a biography. This book is a look at his theorem with comments about his life thrown in to put the work into some human context. For a thurough description of the theorem with a gentle human touch this is the book for you. Casti et al. does a great job of making tough ideas readable. If you want to know more about the theorem that turned mathematics on its head this is it. Not perfect (less talk about cake :-) ) but fun, readable, educational, A shame it is out of print.

Not really a biography, but very good nonetheless

I would agree with other reviewers who point out that Casti and DePauli's book really doesn't work as a biography. While there are some interesting biographical factoids, they are offered in such a disjoint manner that it is hard to see this book as a good biography of Kurt Godel.However, as a book that gives an accessible overview of Godel's work, it is very effective. The best parts of the book deal with Godel's Theorem and Turing's Halting Problem. While there are other books out there that do a good job of making both those topics accessible to a wide audience, Casti and DePauli's treatment is worth a read because they also offer some unique insights not (easily) found elsewhere.But the best part of this book is the second to the last chapter that gives an accessible account of Algorithmic Information Theory (aka 'Kolmogorov Complexity') ... especially Gregory Chaitin's work on the randomness of natural numbers. While Chaitin has also written some accessible works on this topic, Casti and DePauli does a great job of explaining this topic to a wider audience as well as showing the connections between AIT and Godel/Turing. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book.A very interesting and insightful thing that Casti and DePauli did was to periodically re-define Godel's Theorem in terms of Turing's Halting Problem, Chaitin's work, and from other interesting angles.The book is not without fault. Besides the rather haphazard biographical details, the chapters dealing with some of Godel's other projects (physics, mysticism, etc.) were rather poorly written. Also, Casti and DePauli did a very bad job with citations/suggestions for further reading. E.g., they often cite to other works, or suggest readers consult other sources for further details, and then do NOT provide those sources in the bibliography. There are some other examples of sloppy editing and writing that would be hard to point out to those who haven't actually read the book.Having said all of that, the book deserves 5 stars because of the material on the incompleteness of mathematics, solvability/computability, random nature of mathematics, and some of the biographical trivia (to the extent that they are offered). My recommendation is that people buy the paperback if they are interested in AIT, mathematical logic, and theoretical computer science, and want those topics dealt with in an accessible and interesting manner without sacrificing on insights.

Not all Godel, but all good!

Godel was an interesting man who thought up some interesting things. Contrary to the opinions of previous reviewers, I think the authors got the "interesting life/intersting things" ratio of content just about right. The biographical section, which is only really a couple of chapters, certainly expanded my knowledge of his life(all I knew previously was that he was Austrian and neurotic). But his work and it's philosophical implications are far more enthraling than what appears to be years of drinking tea at Princeton( after it had been screened by his wife of course) .Fair enough, much of the book was spent introducing Godel's work but this should have been anticipated and the task was done with some merit.Also, the critisism that the authors diverge from the work of Godel himself is valid, but I do not feel this detracts from the book in any way.By including the work of Turing and Chaittin much later on, we get an idea of the implications his discoveries have had and continue to have. Often we read that the work of any particular famous scientist still has a strong influence today but are not given any concrete examples. This leads ultra-sceptics like me to the belief that writers include commments like this to make their chosen subject appear more relevant and topical.The extensive discussion of Chaittin and his work indicated that Godel really does influence much of todays work in certain fields.The account also happened to be fascinating,well explained and as yet unmentioned in any other books on this subject I have encountered.So what if it was not directly attributibal to Godel, it was welcome bonus material.Perhaps, the only fault is in the title, which may have misled some into thinking the book was more biographical, but the pages inbetween provide a clear and conscise account of Godel and his legacy.

The most authentic review I have read so far

If you are looking for a most lively, authentic, in-depth review of Kurt Gödel and his scientific accomplishments---then dont go further and read this book! One of the authors, Werner DePauli, is a born Viennese and has spent many years of his life to search for the spiritual, cultural and intellectual background of "Gödel's Vienna". He in many ways helped and made possible the compilation of Gödel's collected scientific work (whose last volume we still all eagerly await). John Casti is one of the rare people to understand Gödel's mathematics and at the same time is able to communicate these findings to the people.I would recommend this book as a first class reading resource both for people who want to know about the authentic life of Gödel, as well as for people who want to get aquainted with Gödel's ideas and their further impact on 20th century thinking.Let me finally state that I strongly disagree with the anonymous "peer review" of a reader from Seattle, WA USA in almost all respects.

The most authentic review I have read so far

If you are looking for a most lively, authentic, in-depth review of Kurt Gödel and his scientific accomplishments---then dont go further and read this book! One of the authors, Werner DePauli, is a born Viennese and has spent many years of his life to search for the spiritual, cultural and intellectual background of "Gödel's Vienna". He in many ways helped and made possible the compilation of Gödel's collected scientific work (whose last volume we still all eagerly await). John Casti is one of the rare people to understand Gödel's mathematics and at the same time is able to communicate these findings to the people.I would recommend this book as a first class reading resource both for people who want to know about the authentic life of Gödel, as well as for people who want to get aquainted with Gödel's ideas and their further impact on 20th century thinking.Let me finally state that I strongly disagree with the anonymous "peer review" of a reader from Seattle, WA USA in almost all respects.