Paolo Zellini

A Brief History of Infinity

Is mathematics a discovery or an invention? Do numbers truly exist? What sort of reality do formulas describe? The complexity of mathematics - its abstract rules and obscure symbols - can seem very distant from the everyday. There are those things that are real and present, it is supposed, and then there are mathematical concepts: creations of our mind, mysterious tools for those unengaged with the world. Yet, from its most remote history and deepest purpose, mathematics has served not just as a way to understand and order, but also as a foundation for the reality it describes. In this elegant book, mathematician and philosopher Paolo Zellini offers a brief cultural and intellectual history of mathematics, ranging widely from the paradoxes of ancient Greece to the sacred altars of India, from Mesopotamian calculus to our own contemporary obsession with algorithms. Masterful and illuminating, The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men transforms our understanding of mathematical thinking, showing that it is inextricably linked with the philosophical and the religious as well as the mundane - and, indeed, with our own very human experience of the universe.

A Cultural History

The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men

Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men

Matematica zeilor şi algoritmii oamenilor

Categoria temibile e sfuggente, concetto che «corrompe e altera tutti gli altri» (Borges), l’infinito ha una storia millenaria, che coinvolge matematica, misticismo, letteratura e filosofia. In questo volume Zellini ne analizza con lucidità ed eleganza l’evoluzione, dalla Grecia antica a oggi, dall’apeiron di Anassimandro alle attuali suggestioni dell’“infinito aperto”.

Breve storia dell'infinito

In A Brief History of Infinity, the infinite in all its forms - viewed from the perspective of mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians - is explored, as Zellini strives to explain this fundamental principle. What is the difference between trueand false infinity? How might we explain away the puzzle of Zeno's paradox? And how is the concept of infinity helping us as we wrestle with the fundamental uncertainties of the quantum world? Paolo Zellini shows that the concept of the infinite is a multifaceted one, and eloquently demonstrates the manner in which humanity has attempted to comprehend that concept for millenia.

Paolo Zellini

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