Rebecca Goldstein
Incompleteness
The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Gödel
"A gem. . . . An unforgettable account of
one of the great moments in the history
of human thought."
—Steven Pinker
PROBING THE LIFE and work of Kurt Gödel, Incompleteness
indelibly portrays the tortured genius whose
vision rocked the stability of mathematical reasoning—
and brought him to the edge of madness.
"Magnificent. . . . A stimulating exploration of
both the power and the limitations of the human
intellect. . . . Goldstein is an excellent choice for this
installment of Norton's Great Discoveries series: Her
philosophical background makes her a sure guide to
the underlying ideas, and she brings a novelistic depth
of character and atmosphere . . . to her sympathetic
depiction of the logician's tortured psyche, as his
relentless search for logical patterns . . . gradually
darkened into paranoia."—Publishers Weekly
"Thoroughly engaging. . . . By the book's end, we
understand well why Einstein would look forward to
‘the privilege of walking home with Gödel,' and we
can't help but wish that we'd been able to join
them."—Brian Greene
"Penetrating, accessible, and beautifully written."
—Alan Lightman
REBECCA GOLDSTEIN is a MacArthur
Fellow, a professor of philosophy, and the
author of five novels and a collection of
short stories. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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