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adamalonzi 's review for:
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
by Christos Papadimitriou, Apostolos Doxiadis
Too much praise is bound to bring out our inner skeptic, which is why I read this book right before bed (we're usually less critical before sleep).
Logicomix lives up to the hype and it's obvious, after ten pages, why it's (almost) universally loved.
Is it a substitute for your boring-as-paint-drying-in-January textbook?
No, but it will make that seemingly arid wasteland more alive. Once you know the story, everything else falls into place. That's the magic. While the authors take some liberties with the facts, it's not enough to wreck your grasp of history (besides, they mention all of these creative alterations at the end). It humanizes what seems to be, at very glance, an arcane and abstruse topic - something that is so deceptively simple that onlookers may wonder why talents like von Neumann and Hilbert spent any time on it.
Why were the foundations of arithmetic so bedeviling to certain mathematicians?
It's doubly puzzling to see others, like Russell and Whitehead, dedicate a significant portion of their careers to this problem, something that most of us take for granted and, more importantly, believe that it should be taken for granted.
As a sequel, I recommend [b:Gödel's Proof|695429|Gödel's Proof|Ernest Nagel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410131135l/695429._SX50_.jpg|2117648].
Logicomix lives up to the hype and it's obvious, after ten pages, why it's (almost) universally loved.
Is it a substitute for your boring-as-paint-drying-in-January textbook?
No, but it will make that seemingly arid wasteland more alive. Once you know the story, everything else falls into place. That's the magic. While the authors take some liberties with the facts, it's not enough to wreck your grasp of history (besides, they mention all of these creative alterations at the end). It humanizes what seems to be, at very glance, an arcane and abstruse topic - something that is so deceptively simple that onlookers may wonder why talents like von Neumann and Hilbert spent any time on it.
Why were the foundations of arithmetic so bedeviling to certain mathematicians?
It's doubly puzzling to see others, like Russell and Whitehead, dedicate a significant portion of their careers to this problem, something that most of us take for granted and, more importantly, believe that it should be taken for granted.
As a sequel, I recommend [b:Gödel's Proof|695429|Gödel's Proof|Ernest Nagel|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410131135l/695429._SX50_.jpg|2117648].