| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
viii, 210 p., [4] p. of plates : ill., ports. ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-199) and index. |
| Contents |
A conspiracy of silence -- A German bias for metaphysics -- Vienna: logical circles -- A spy in the house of logic -- It's hard to leave Vienna -- Amid the demigods -- The scandal of big "T" and little "t" -- Twilight of the gods -- In what sense is Godel (or anyone else) a philosopher? |
| Summary |
It is a widely known but little considered fact that Albert Einstein and Kurt Godel were best friends for the last decade and a half of Einstein's life. The two walked home together from Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study every day; they shared ideas about physics, philosophy, politics, and the lost world of German science in which they had grown up. By 1949, Godel had produced a remarkable proof: In any universe described by the Theory of Relativity, time cannot exist. Einstein endorsed this result-reluctantly, since it decisively overthrew the classical world-view to which he was committed. But he could find no way to refute it, and in the half-century since then, neither has anyone else. Even more remarkable than this stunning discovery, however, was what happened afterward: nothing. Cosmologists and philosophers alike have proceeded with their work as if Godel's proof never existed-one of the greatest scandals of modern intellectual history. |
| Subject |
Time -- History -- 20th century.
|
|
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955.
|
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Godel, Kurt.
|
| ISBN |
0465092934 |
| Standard No. |
9780465092932 |
|
NLGGC 27384332X |
|
