Overview

During his lifetime, Kurt Gödel was not well known outside the professional world of mathematicians, philosophers and theoretical physicists. Early in his career, for his doctoral thesis and then for his Habilitation (Dr.Sci.), he wrote earthshaking articles on the completeness and provability of mathematical-logical systems, upsetting the hypotheses of the most famous mathematicians/philosophers of the time. He later delved into theoretical physics, finding a unique solution to Einstein’s equations for gravity, the ‘Gödel Universe’, and made contributions to philosophy, the guiding theme of his life.  This book includes more details about the context of Gödel’s life than are found in earlier biographies, while avoiding an elaborate treatment of his mathematical/scientific/philosophical works, which have been described in great detail in other books. In this way, it makes him and his times more accessible to general readers, and will allow them to appreciate the lasting effects of Gödel’s contributions (the latter in a more up-to-date context than in previous biographies, many of which were written 15–25 years ago). His work spans or is relevant to a wide spectrum of intellectual endeavor, and this is emphasized in the book, with recent examples. This biography also examines possible sources of his unusual personality, which combined mathematical genius with an almost childlike naiveté concerning everyday life, and striking scientific innovations with timidity and hesitancy in practical matters. How he nevertheless had a long and successful career, inspiring many younger scholars along the way, with the help of his loyal wife Adele and some of his friends, is a fascinating story in human nature.

Full Product Details

Author:   William D. Brewer
Publisher:   Springer International Publishing AG
Imprint:   Springer International Publishing AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2022
Weight:   0.789kg
ISBN:  

9783031113116

ISBN 10:   303111311
Pages:   495
Publication Date:   10 September 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Preface.- Prologue.- La Belle Époque in Brünn. Beginnings.- School Days. A New Nation.- Moving to the Capital. Student Life in 1920’s Vienna.- The Wiener Kreis and the Mathematical Colloquium. Graduate work.- Private Life in Vienna.- Gödel’s Doctoral Thesis. The Incompleteness Theorems.- The Mathematician in Vienna. Habilitation.- Matters of Health.- A Sojourn Abroad: 1933/34 – Princeton.- Back to Vienna. The First Breakdown.- ‘Commuting’ between Vienna and Princeton – The Late 1930’s. Marriage.- The Continuum Hypothesis.- Professional Uncertainty. A Long Journey Eastwards.-  Princeton and the IAS – Philosophy, Einstein and von Neumann.  A Bizarre Birthday Present: Gödel‘s Universe.- Reception, Recognition, Honors. Einstein’s Loss. The Professor at Princeton.- The 1960’s: Fame and Seclusion.- Later Years. Philosophy, Cosmology, Logic, Computability.- Gödel’s Legacy – The Lessons of an Unusual Life.- Epilogue.  

Reviews

“This biography of Kurt Gödel is written for a wide audience with a limited mathematical background. … The biography is written in a clear and readable style and is very well researched. I was particularly impressed by the author’s familiarity with all things German. … I strongly recommend this biography to anyone interested in the life (and the work) of Kurt Gödel, whose incompleteness theorems spelled the end of Hilbert’s program.” (Franz Lemmermeyer, zbMATH 1505.01001, 2023) “This biography of Kurt Gödel is written for a wide audience with a limited mathematical background. … The biography is written in a clear and readable style and is very well researched. I was particularly impressed by the author’s familiarity with all things German. … I strongly recommend this biography to anyone interested in the life (and the work) of Kurt Gödel, whose incompleteness theorems spelled the end of Hilbert’s program.” (Franz Lemmermeyer, zbMATH 1505.01001, 2023)

Author Information

William D. Brewer was born 1943 in the USA. Educated in Chemistry and Mathematics at Univ. Oregon (Eugene) and Univ. California (Berkeley).  Postdoctoral work in physics at the Freie Universität Berlin and in Orsay, France. Habilitation in experimental physics at the FU Berlin, later University  Professor there.  Research in nuclear and solid-state physics, magnetism on surfaces and in thin films. Visiting scientist at Paris-Sud, IBM Yorktown Heights,  Stanford, CRTBT Grenoble, KU Leuven, Univ. São Paulo, CBPF - Rio de Janeiro. Translations of over 20 scientific works (German to English), work for the  Einstein Papers Project. Co-author of the book “Jayme Tiomno – A Life for Science, a Life for Brazil” in the Springer Biographies series (2020). 

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