"Plato's Ghost" is the first book to examine the development of
mathematics from 1880 to 1920 as a modernist transformation similar
to those in art, literature, and music. Jeremy Gray traces the
growth of mathematical modernism from its roots in problem solving
and theory to its interactions with physics, philosophy, theology,
psychology, and ideas about real and artificial languages. He shows
how mathematics was popularized, and explains how mathematical
modernism not only gave expression to the work of mathematicians
and the professional image they sought to create for themselves,
but how modernism also introduced deeper and ultimately
unanswerable questions.
"Plato's Ghost" evokes Yeats's lament that any claim to worldly
perfection inevitably is proven wrong by the philosopher's ghost;
Gray demonstrates how modernist mathematicians believed they had
advanced further than anyone before them, only to make more
profound mistakes. He tells for the first time the story of these
ambitious and brilliant mathematicians, including Richard Dedekind,
Henri Lebesgue, Henri Poincare, and many others. He describes the
lively debates surrounding novel objects, definitions, and proofs
in mathematics arising from the use of naive set theory and the
revived axiomatic method--debates that spilled over into
contemporary arguments in philosophy and the sciences and drove an
upsurge of popular writing on mathematics. And he looks at
mathematics after World War I, including the foundational crisis
and mathematical Platonism.
"Plato's Ghost" is essential reading for mathematicians and
historians, and will appeal to anyone interested in the development
of modern mathematics."
General
| Imprint: |
Princeton University Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
September 2008 |
| First published: |
2008 |
| Authors: |
Jeremy Gray
|
| Dimensions: |
254 x 178 x 35mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Hardcover - Trade binding
|
| Pages: |
528 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-691-13610-3 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Science & Mathematics >
Mathematics >
History of mathematics
|
| LSN: |
0-691-13610-6 |
| Barcode: |
9780691136103 |
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