Basic Books
The Great Math War
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Title: The Great Math War
Author: Jason Socrates Bardi
ISBN: 9781541605008
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2025
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Publisher Description: <b>A stirring account of the mathematicians who went looking for the bedrock philosophical foundations of their field and witnessed a house of cards collapse instead </b> <p/> As the nineteenth century ended, mathematicians were celebrating a century of triumphs that--surprisingly--made clear how little they knew: What is the nature of infinity? Is math free from self-contradiction? And what does math have to do with reality? This was the Foundational Crisis in mathematics. <p/> In <i>The Great Math War, </i> Jason Socrates Bardi tells the story of three competing efforts by mathematicians to resolve it--and the firefight that ensued. Bertrand Russell thought we could achieve certainty if we treated math as an extension of logic. David Hilbert believed redemption lay in accepting mathematics as a formal game of arbitrary rules, no different from the moves and pieces in chess. And L. E. J. Brouwer argued math is entirely rooted in human intuition--and that math is not based on logic but rather logic is based on math. It was a bitter struggle, intellectually and personally, as the three vied to set the course for mathematics in the twentieth century. <p/> Set against the backdrop of international warfare unfolding alongside it, <i>The Great Math War </i>brings the Foundational Crisis to radiant life--and shows how it indelibly shaped twentieth-century intellectual life.
Author: Jason Socrates Bardi
ISBN: 9781541605008
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 2025
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Publisher Description: <b>A stirring account of the mathematicians who went looking for the bedrock philosophical foundations of their field and witnessed a house of cards collapse instead </b> <p/> As the nineteenth century ended, mathematicians were celebrating a century of triumphs that--surprisingly--made clear how little they knew: What is the nature of infinity? Is math free from self-contradiction? And what does math have to do with reality? This was the Foundational Crisis in mathematics. <p/> In <i>The Great Math War, </i> Jason Socrates Bardi tells the story of three competing efforts by mathematicians to resolve it--and the firefight that ensued. Bertrand Russell thought we could achieve certainty if we treated math as an extension of logic. David Hilbert believed redemption lay in accepting mathematics as a formal game of arbitrary rules, no different from the moves and pieces in chess. And L. E. J. Brouwer argued math is entirely rooted in human intuition--and that math is not based on logic but rather logic is based on math. It was a bitter struggle, intellectually and personally, as the three vied to set the course for mathematics in the twentieth century. <p/> Set against the backdrop of international warfare unfolding alongside it, <i>The Great Math War </i>brings the Foundational Crisis to radiant life--and shows how it indelibly shaped twentieth-century intellectual life.
