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At its core, economics is about making decisions. In the history of
economic thought, great intellectual prowess has been exerted
toward devising exquisite theories of optimal decision making in
situations of constraint, risk, and scarcity. Yet not all of our
choices are purely logical, and so there is a longstanding tension
between those emphasizing the rational and irrational sides of
human behavior. One strand develops formal models of rational
utility maximizing while the other draws on what behavioral science
has shown about our tendency to act irrationally. In Risk, Choice,
and Uncertainty, George G. Szpiro offers a new narrative of the
three-century history of the study of decision making, tracing how
crucial ideas have evolved and telling the stories of the thinkers
who shaped the field. Szpiro examines economics from the early days
of theories spun from anecdotal evidence to the rise of a
discipline built around elegant mathematics through the past half
century's interest in describing how people actually behave.
Considering the work of Locke, Bentham, Jevons, Walras, Friedman,
Tversky and Kahneman, Thaler, and a range of other thinkers, he
sheds light on the vast scope of discovery since Bernoulli first
proposed a solution to the St. Petersburg Paradox. Presenting
fundamental mathematical theories in easy-to-understand language,
Risk, Choice, and Uncertainty is a revelatory history for readers
seeking to grasp the grand sweep of economic thought.
Sir Walter Raleigh wollte wissen, wie Kanonenkugeln in einem Schiff
am dichtesten gestapelt werden koennen. Der Astronom Johannes
Kepler lieferte im Jahr 1611 die Antwort: genau so, wie
Gemusehandler ihre Orangen und Tomaten aufstapeln. Noch war dies
lediglich eine Vermutung - erst 1998 gelang dem amerikanischen
Mathematiker Thomas Hales mit Hilfe von Computern der mathematische
Beweis. Einer der besten Autoren fur popularwissenschaftliche
Mathematik beschreibt auf faszinierende Art und Weise ein beruhmtes
mathematisches Problem und dessen Loesung.
Der Band erläutert die mathematischen Hintergründe der
demokratischen Wahlsysteme und führt dabei zugleich in ihre
Geschichte ein. Die Mehrheitswahl und die Zuteilung von Sitzen im
Parlament etwa werfen mathematische Fragen auf, deren Lösung
überraschend schwierig ist. Wie viele Sitze bekommt zum Beispiel
eine Partei, die 23,6 Prozent der Stimmen erhielt? Die Erklärung
beginnt in der Antike, führt über mittelalterliche Kirchenherren,
Helden der Französischen Revolution und amerikanischen
Gründungsväter bis zu heutigen Nobelpreisträgern.
The amazing story of one of the greatest math problems of all time
and the reclusive genius who solved it
In the tradition of "Fermatas Enigma" and "Prime Obsession,"
George Szpiro brings to life the giants of mathematics who
struggled to prove a theorem for a century and the mysterious man
from St. Petersburg, Grigory Perelman, who fi nally accomplished
the impossible. In 1904 Henri PoincarA(c) developed the PoincarA(c)
Conjecture, an attempt to understand higher-dimensional space and
possibly the shape of the universe. The problem was he couldnat
prove it. A century later it was named a Millennium Prize problem,
one of the seven hardest problems we can imagine. Now this holy
grail of mathematics has been found.
Accessibly interweaving history and math, Szpiro captures the
passion, frustration, and excitement of the hunt, and provides a
fascinating portrait of a contemporary noble-genius.
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