5 ms·
Budiansky is a good writer: his "Battle of Wits" about WW2 Enigma cryptanalysis is worth reading, even though it is mostly rehashed from other sources. I'll pr
by throwaway81523 5y ago
Budiansky is a good writer: his "Battle of Wits" about WW2 Enigma cryptanalysis is worth reading, even though it is mostly rehashed from other sources. I'll probably try to check out this Gödel biography, though the mental illness angle sounds pretty bogus.
But it seems to me, we already have a perfectly good Gödel biography, "Logical Dreams" by John Dawson, who is himself a logician, catalogued Gödel's Nachlass which probably made him the world's foremost Gödel archivist, and was also one of the editors of Gödel's Collected Works (5 vols).
Obviously I haven't read the new book so I can't compare directly, but my Bayesian prior is that if you're going to read just one, go with Dawson's.
If you're more interested in understanding the incompleteness theorem and the great amount of nonsense and confusion surrounding it, try "Gödel's Theorem: An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse", by Torkel Franzén, reviewed here:
http://www.ams.org/notices/200703/rev-raatikainen.pdf http://www.ams.org/notices/200703/rev-raatikainen.pdf
Dawson's biography of Gödel is reviewed here:
https://www.ams.org/notices/200108/rev-davis.pdf https://www.ams.org/notices/200108/rev-davis.pdf
- pge 5y agoIncompleteness by Rebecca Goldstein is also a fantastic bio of Gödel that captures the historical context and significance of his work
- throwaway81523 5y agoI have not read Goldstein's book, but multiple reviews by mathematicians said that while she did a careful and sensitive job on the biographical parts of the book, she completely messed up the mathematical parts. It's not that a biography needs to focus on technical details (that's what textbooks are for), but the author should at least understand them before writing about their significance. See Torkel Franzén's book for more about that.
- d4rkp4ttern 5y agoI just finished reading it last week. I feel he could have shortened the initial 30 pages of the Austrian geopolitical environment, but otherwise really enjoyed it. It was a smooth read. Was not aware of the previous biographies, thanks for sharing those. It is interesting that you’re saying the mental health story is not universally accepted.
- throwaway81523 5y agoI think it is universally accepted that Gödel was a great mathematician who suffered from mental illness. Budiansky's book seems to espouse a romantic but bogus notion that Gödel was a great mathematician because he suffered from mental illness. It doesn't work that way.
- d4rkp4ttern 5y agoAh I see what you meant. Somehow I didn’t pick up that interpretation from my reading.
- efm 5y agoCorrection: "Logical Dilemmas" by John Dawson