Logicomix
Book description
This brilliantly illustrated tale of reason, insanity, love and truth recounts the story of Bertrand Russell's life. Raised by his paternal grandparents, young Russell was never told the whereabouts of his parents. Driven by a desire for knowledge of his own history, he attempted to force the world to yield…
Why read it?
4 authors picked Logicomix as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
In the mood for a graphic novel starring Bertrand Russell and a supporting cast of famous thinkers like Whitehead, Frege, Gödel, and Wittgenstein? Logicomix is for you!
Flip to Chapter Six, “Incompleteness,” for a peek of Vienna in the 1930s. The logic and philosophy illustrated throughout provide a great context for the work of Vienna’s famous philosophical circle led by Moritz Schlick, whose 1936 murder provides a chilling contrast to the intellectual pursuits of that time.
From Kirsten's list on love, loss, and logic in 1930s Vienna.
Logicomix is a revelation. It tells the colorful life stories of some incredibly important philosophers and mathematicians of recent times, how they met and how their lives reflect their thoughts about some of the most difficult questions ever posed. The stories are beautifully illustrated with a detail that conveys more than mere words. It feels wondrous how the most abstract ideas can be made comprehensible and captivating when we had only the vaguest notions about what these ideas even meant.
From Uta's list on explaining things that matter via graphics.
Logicomix is as entertaining, beautiful, and informative as it is surprising; it is a graphic novel about the foundations of mathematics. The book follows the philosopher, logician, and mathematician Bertrand Russell and his contemporaries like Georg Cantor, Ludwig Wittgenstein, David Hilbert, Gottlob Frege, Kurt Gödel, and Alan Turing as they try to create a solid structure of logic and set theory on which all of mathematics can be built. Although Logicomix is, strictly speaking, a novel, it stays close to the historical and mathematical truth, and at the end of the book the authors say precisely what liberties they have…
From David's list on for mathematics enthusiasts.
Logicomix is an impossible book: a graphic novel about the foundational crisis in mathematics in the early decades of the 20th century. And if that sounds to you crazy, or boring, or contrived (as it did to me when I first heard about it) Doxiadis and Papadimitriou are here to prove you wrong. The book is absolutely beautiful, the artwork exquisite, and most importantly – the story is downright gripping. Once you’ve picked up Logicomix, chances are you will not put it down until you’ve read the whole thing, cover to cover. It’s just that good.
The book follows…
From Amir's list on the power and wonder of mathematics.
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