Journey to the Edge of Reason
by Stephen Budiansky · first published 2021
7mentions
2recommended by
6HN commenters
2021–2025first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
The life and times of Kurt Gödel, Austrian logician and crucial early 20th century mathematician.
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Biographies are technically non fiction I suppose? I really enjoyed reading Kurt Godel’s biography: Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel.
on “Ask HN: Favorite Nonfiction Books of 2021?” ↗For those who like to read biographies of the brilliant minds, instead of the actual mathematics they produced, I can highly recommend "Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel" (2021) by Stephen Budiansky, which is nice.
on “What do we mean by "the foundations of mathematics"?” ↗"Journey to the Edge of Reason, The Life of Kurt Gödel", by Stephen Budiansky. Even though it contains an introduction to his proof of the Incompleteness Theorems, you won't learn all too much about logic or mathematics, but it sure…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading these days?” ↗I recently read the new Gödel biography Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel and it was pretty clear that Von Neumann played a key role in getting Gödel out of Austria just prior to WWII. Gödel had been a visiting lecturer at the IAS at Princeton off and…
on “What John von Neumann Did at Los Alamos” ↗…description of arithmetization. Which book? The one being reviewed? I can't read the whole article, so I might be missing some context. EDIT: I didn't realize you were quoting an entire passage from Journey to the Edge of Reason. I thought it was from a part of TFA that was behind the paywall.
on “Journey to the Edge of Reason: The life of Kurt Gödel” ↗Thanks for the recommendation. I’m currently reading Journey To The Edge of Reason,¹ which is nominally a biography of Kurt Gödel but the first third is about the rise and fall of Austrian intellectual dominance and the Vienna Circle is a central piece of that story. ¹ https://www.amazon.com/Journey-Edge-Reason-Life-G%C3%B6del/d...
on “The Vienna Circle” ↗The book reviewed is on the left panel: JOURNEY TO THE EDGE OF REASON The life of Kurt Gödel 368pp. Oxford University Press. £20. Stephen Budianksy
on “Journey to the Edge of Reason: The life of Kurt Gödel” ↗