Why am I passionate about this?
Philosophy’s core questions have always obsessed me: What is real? What makes life worth living? Can knowledge be made secure? In graduate school at the University of Virginia I was drawn to mathematically formalized approaches to such questions, especially those of C. S. Peirce and Alain Badiou. More recently, alongside colleagues at Endicott College’s Center for Diagrammatic and Computational Philosophy and GCAS College Dublin I have explored applications of diagrammatic logic, category theory, game theory, and homotopy type theory to such problems as abductive inference and artificial intelligence. Philosophers committed to the perennial questions have much to gain today from studying the new methods and results of contemporary mathematics.
Rocco's book list on mathematics for the philosophically inclined
Why did Rocco love this book?
Sometimes a book is not just brilliant and thought-provoking but just plain fun.
Scott Aaronson’s Quantum Computing Since Democritus provides a broad overview of philosophical issues arising from computational theory, cryptography, quantum mechanics, and quantum computing. Its style is crisp, clear, and conversational.
It’s the kind of book that can be read a first time briskly for the sheer excitement of it and then a second time with attention to all the details for consistent Eureka! moments of philosophical insight. Fascinating material and an excellent presentation.
2 authors picked Quantum Computing Since Democritus as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Written by noted quantum computing theorist Scott Aaronson, this book takes readers on a tour through some of the deepest ideas of maths, computer science and physics. Full of insights, arguments and philosophical perspectives, the book covers an amazing array of topics. Beginning in antiquity with Democritus, it progresses through logic and set theory, computability and complexity theory, quantum computing, cryptography, the information content of quantum states and the interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are also extended discussions about time travel, Newcomb's Paradox, the anthropic principle and the views of Roger Penrose. Aaronson's informal style makes this fascinating book accessible…