Journey to the Edge of Reason

The Life of Kurt Gödel

De: Stephen Budiansky

Narrado por: Bob Souer

The first major biography of the logician and mathematician whose incompleteness theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution.

Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable - continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life.

An intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna and a vivid re-creation of the early days of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel's voluminous letters and writings - including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts - to explore his profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It illuminates the mind-bending implications of Gödel's revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man's place in the cosmos.

©2021 Stephen Budiansky (P)2021 Tantor

lots of ww2 history

less about the math and more about the history of his life before that. Also general ww2 info

Highly recommended

This is a beautiful telling of the story of one of the greatest logicians of all time. It gives you a wholesome picture of this enigmatic and extraordinary genius. I recommend it in particular for the details it gives about Austrian society prior to WWII and the story behind the origins of IAS Princeton.

Fantastically done!

A great audiobook. This is an accessible, insightful and thoroughly researched book about one of the most important mathematicians in history.

Great listening

Loved it! Although I thought the first chapters focused too much on Austrian history.

EDUCATION AND FREEDOM

Stephen Budiansky offers a biography of one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century. His name was Kurt Gödel.
It is the biographic details and good writing that make “Journey to the Edge of Reason” interesting. Budiansky sets a table for what becomes Gödel’s life.

Budiansky explains the history of Austria before WWI and WWII. Gödel’s family lives an upper-middleclass life when their son Kurt is born. That lifestyle is interrupted by WWI and destroyed by WWII. In the mid-19th century, the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly Vienna, is a center for education and culture in Europe. Unlike much of the continent, equality of opportunity, regardless of religion and ethnicity, were available in the Austro-Hungarian' capitol of Vienna. For a short time, Vienna became a magnate for Jewish immigrants seeking education and opportunity.

A striking fact in Budiansky's biography of Gödel is how many geniuses came to America from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Without its education system, the Viennese equal opportunity, and the attraction of western freedom, the advance of science and its role in the world would be diminished.

As a non-mathematician one may not understand the importance of Gödel’s theory, but Budiansky does a great service to the public by writing Gödel’s biography.