Overview

Berto's highly readable and lucid guide introduces students and the interested reader to Gödel's celebrated Incompleteness Theorem, and discusses some of the most famous - and infamous - claims arising from Gödel's arguments. Offers a clear understanding of this difficult subject by presenting each of the key steps of the Theorem in separate chapters Discusses interpretations of the Theorem made by celebrated contemporary thinkers Sheds light on the wider extra-mathematical and philosophical implications of Gödel's theories Written in an accessible, non-technical style

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9781405197663

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Reviews

There's Something about G¨odel is a bargain: two books in one. The first half is a gentle but rigorous introduction to the incompleteness theorems for the mathematically uninitiated. The second is a survey of the philosophical, psychological, and sociological consequences people have attempted to derive from the theorems, some of them quite fantastical. (Philosophia Mathematica, 2011) There is a story that in 1930 the great mathematician John von Neumann emerged from a seminar delivered by Kurt Godel saying: 'It's all over.' Godel had just proved the two theorems about the logical foundations of mathematics that are the subject of this valuable new book by Francesco Berto. Berto's clear exposition and his strategy of dividing the proof into short, easily digestible chunks make it pleasant reading ... .Berto is lucid and witty in exposing mistaken applications of Godel's results ... [and] has provided a thoroughly recommendable guide to Godel's theorems and their current status within, and outside, mathematical logic. ( Times Higher Education Supplement , February 2010)

There is a story that in 1930 the great mathematician John von Neumann emerged from a seminar delivered by Kurt Godel saying: 'It's all over.' Godel had just proved the two theorems about the logical foundations of mathematics that are the subject of this valuable new book by Francesco Berto. Berto's clear exposition and his strategy of dividing the proof into short, easily digestible chunks make it pleasant reading ... .Berto is lucid and witty in exposing mistaken applications of Godel's results ... [and] has provided a thoroughly recommendable guide to Godel's theorems and their current status within, and outside, mathematical logic. (Times Higher Education Supplement, February 2010)

There's Something about Godel is a bargain: two books in one. The first half is a gentle but rigorous introduction to the incompleteness theorems for the mathematically uninitiated. The second is a survey of the philosophical, psychological, and sociological consequences people have attempted to derive from the theorems, some of them quite fantastical. (Philosophia Mathematica, 2011) ?There is a story that in 1930 the great mathematician John von Neumann emerged from a seminar delivered by Kurt Goedel saying: ?It's all over.? Goedel had just proved the two theorems about the logical foundations of mathematics that are the subject of this valuable new book by Francesco Berto. Berto's clear exposition and his strategy of dividing the proof into short, easily digestible chunks make it pleasant reading ... .Berto is lucid and witty in exposing mistaken applications of Goedel's results ... [and] has provided a thoroughly recommendable guide to Goedel's theorems and their current status within, and outside, mathematical logic.? (Times Higher Education Supplement, February 2010)

Author Information

Francesco Berto teaches logic, ontology, and philosophy of mathematics at the universities of Aberdeen in Scotland, and Venice and Milan-San Raffaele in Italy. He holds a Chaire d'Excellence fellowship at CNRS in Paris, where he has taught ontology at the École Normale Supérieure, and he is a visiting professor at the Institut Wiener Kreis of the University of Vienna. He has written papers for American Philosophical Quarterly, Dialectica, The Philosophical Quarterly, the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, the European Journal of Philosophy, Philosophia Mathematica, Logique et Analyse, and Metaphysica, and runs the entries “Dialetheism” and “Impossible Worlds” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. His book How to Sell a Contradiction has won the 2007 Castiglioncello prize for the best philosophical book by a young philosopher.

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