A portrait of the eminent twentieth-century mathematician discusses his theorem of incompleteness, relationships with such contemporaries as Albert Einstein, and untimely death as a result of mental instability and self-starvation.

"A gem…An unforgettable account of one of the great moments in the history of human thought." —Steven Pinker Probing the life and work of Kurt Gödel, Incompleteness indelibly portrays the tortured genius whose vision rocked the stability of mathematical reasoning—and brought him to the edge of madness.

Considered the 20th century's greatest mathematician, Kurt Godel is the subject of this lucid and accessible study, which explains the significance of his theorems and the remarkable vision behind them, while bringing this eccentric, tortured genius and his world to life.

This introduction to mathematical logic takes Gödel's incompleteness theorem as a starting point. It goes beyond a standard text book and should interest everyone from mathematicians to philosophers and general readers who wish to understand the foundations and limitations of modern mathematics.

Kurt Godel, the greatest logician of our time, startled the world of mathematics in 1931 with his Theorem of Undecidability, which showed that some statements in mathematics are inherently "undecidable." His work on the completeness of logic, the incompleteness of number theory, and the consistency of the axiom of choice and the continuum theory brought him further worldwide fame. In this introductory volume, Raymond Smullyan, himself a well-known logician, guides the reader through the fascinating world of Godel's incompleteness theorems. The level of presentation is suitable for anyone with a basic acquaintance with mathematical logic. As a clear, concise introduction to a difficult but essential subject, the book will appeal to mathematicians, philosophers, and computer scientists.

Russell's paradox arises when we consider those sets that do not belong to themselves. The collection of such sets cannot constitute a set. Step back a bit. Logical formulas define sets (in a standard model). Formulas, being mathematical objects, can be thought of as sets themselves-mathematics reduces to set theory. Consider those formulas that do not belong to the set they define. The collection of such formulas is not definable by a formula, by the same argument that Russell used. This quickly gives Tarski's result on the undefinability of truth. Variations on the same idea yield the famous results of Gödel, Church, Rosser, and Post. This book gives a full presentation of the basic incompleteness and undecidability theorems of mathematical logic in the framework of set theory. Corresponding results for arithmetic follow easily, and are also given. Gödel numbering is generally avoided, except when an explicit connection is made between set theory and arithmetic. The book assumes little technical background from the reader. One needs mathematical ability, a general familiarity with formal logic, and an understanding of the completeness theorem, though not its proof. All else is developed and formally proved, from Tarski's Theorem to Gödel's Second Incompleteness Theorem. Exercises are scattered throughout.

Based on the author's thesis (Doctoral--University of Hong Kong, 2005).