Description
I know of no comparably comprehensive treatment of the history of this important period in modern logic. There is a large body of historical literature that is in need of just the kind of synthesis and masterly overview that this work provides. Though most people recognize mathematics as a principal motivating force behind the development of modern logic, the influences on and from mathematics have been largely ignored or minimized. The Search for Mathematical Roots acts as a guide through that challenging mathematical thicket. -- Albert C. Lewis, chief editor of "The History of Mathematics from Antiquity to the Present" Ivor Grattan-Guinness provides a marvelous, comprehensive overview of the history of efforts to come to an understanding of mathematical logic and its relation to mathematics in the period 1870-1940. Given its rich detail and inclusion of under-appreciated figures who deserve to be better known, this is an especially important and useful book. -- Joseph Dauben, author of "George Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite"
About the Author
I. Grattan-Guinness is Professor of the History of Mathematics and Logic at Middlesex University. Founder of the journal History and Philosophy of Logic and past President of the British Society for the History of Mathematics, he has authored or edited numerous books, including The Norton History of Mathematics, Companion Encyclopedia of the History and Philosophy of the Mathematical Sciences, and Convolutions in French Mathematics, 1800-1840.
Reviews
"Grattan-Guiness's uniformly interesting and valuable account of the interwoven development of logic and related fields of mathematics ... between 1870 and 1940 presents a significantly revised analysis of the history of the period... [His] book is important because it supplies what has been lacking: a full account of the period from a primary mathematical perspective."--James W. Van Evra, Isis
Book Information
ISBN 9780691058580
Author Ivor Grattan-Guinness
Format Paperback
Page Count 624
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 964g