Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0471142166 ISBN 13: 9780471142164

Casa editrice: Wiley, 1997

"[Goodbye, Descartes] is certain to attract attention and controversy..a fascinating journey to the edges of logical thinking and beyond." -Publishers Weekly (???) Critical Acclaim for Keith Devlin's Previous Book Mathematics: The Science of Patterns "A book such as this belongs in the personal library of everyone interested in learning about some of the most subtle and profound works of the human spirit." -American Scientist "Devlin's very attractive book is a well-written attempt to explain mathematics to educated nonmathematicians . the basic ideas are presented in a clear, concise, and easily understood manner. Highly recommended." -Choice "[Devlin] has found an interesting way of exhibiting how mathematics is unified . the author's presentation is a tour de force." -Mathematical Reviews A Selection of the Newbridge Library of Science and Reader's Subscription

From the Publisher:

Critically-acclaimed author Keith Devlin shows how the concept of the mind as a logic machine developed and came to be so widely accepted. Along the way, we encounter the genius of ancient logicians such as Socrates and Zeno of Elea and learn about the logic puzzles they invented. We also meet towering figures of the late nineteenth century, such as Alan Turing, who invented the logic of computing, and Noam Chomsky, who proposed that all human languages are essentially logical and follow universal rules. Reveals a host of findings in the past 2,000 years which demonstrates that logic does not begin to describe how the mind really works. He also shows how efforts to use logic to create "thinking machines" have failed miserably and why those failures demonstrate that no machine would ever think the way the human mind does.

About the Author:

KEITH DEVLIN, Ph.D., is Senior Researcher at Stanford University's Center for the Study of Language and Communication. His previous books include Mathematics: The New Golden Age and Mathematics: The Science of Patterns. His television appearances include the BBC/Nova documentary "A Mathematical Mystery Tour." He lives in Moraga, California.