Author: James Franklin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780801871092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520
Book Description
"A magisterial acount of matters as diverse as the Talmud, Justinian's Digest, torture, witch hunts, Tudor treason trials, ancient and medieval astronomy and physics, humanist historiography, scholastic philosophy, speculations in public debt, and 17th century mathematics." -- International Journal of Evidence and Proof
The Science of Conjecture
Author: James Franklin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780801871092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520
Book Description
"A magisterial acount of matters as diverse as the Talmud, Justinian's Digest, torture, witch hunts, Tudor treason trials, ancient and medieval astronomy and physics, humanist historiography, scholastic philosophy, speculations in public debt, and 17th century mathematics." -- International Journal of Evidence and Proof
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780801871092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 520
Book Description
"A magisterial acount of matters as diverse as the Talmud, Justinian's Digest, torture, witch hunts, Tudor treason trials, ancient and medieval astronomy and physics, humanist historiography, scholastic philosophy, speculations in public debt, and 17th century mathematics." -- International Journal of Evidence and Proof
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture
Author: Apostolos Doxiadis
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 057129569X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Uncle Petros is a family joke. An ageing recluse, he lives alone in a suburb of Athens, playing chess and tending to his garden. If you didn't know better, you'd surely think he was one of life's failures. But his young nephew suspects otherwise. For Uncle Petros, he discovers, was once a celebrated mathematician, brilliant and foolhardy enough to stake everything on solving a problem that had defied all attempts at proof for nearly three centuries - Goldbach's Conjecture. His quest brings him into contact with some of the century's greatest mathematicians, including the Indian prodigy Ramanujan and the young Alan Turing. But his struggle is lonely and single-minded, and by the end it has apparently destroyed his life. Until that is a final encounter with his nephew opens up to Petros, once more, the deep mysterious beauty of mathematics. Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture is an inspiring novel of intellectual adventure, proud genius, the exhilaration of pure mathematics - and the rivalry and antagonism which torment those who pursue impossible goals.
Publisher: Faber & Faber
ISBN: 057129569X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 148
Book Description
Uncle Petros is a family joke. An ageing recluse, he lives alone in a suburb of Athens, playing chess and tending to his garden. If you didn't know better, you'd surely think he was one of life's failures. But his young nephew suspects otherwise. For Uncle Petros, he discovers, was once a celebrated mathematician, brilliant and foolhardy enough to stake everything on solving a problem that had defied all attempts at proof for nearly three centuries - Goldbach's Conjecture. His quest brings him into contact with some of the century's greatest mathematicians, including the Indian prodigy Ramanujan and the young Alan Turing. But his struggle is lonely and single-minded, and by the end it has apparently destroyed his life. Until that is a final encounter with his nephew opens up to Petros, once more, the deep mysterious beauty of mathematics. Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture is an inspiring novel of intellectual adventure, proud genius, the exhilaration of pure mathematics - and the rivalry and antagonism which torment those who pursue impossible goals.
The Art of Causal Conjecture
Author: Glenn Shafer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262193689
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 554
Book Description
In The Art of Causal Conjecture, Glenn Shafer lays out a new mathematical and philosophical foundation for probability and uses it to explain concepts of causality used in statistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. The various disciplines that use causal reasoning differ in the relative weight they put on security and precision of knowledge as opposed to timeliness of action. The natural and social sciences seek high levels of certainty in the identification of causes and high levels of precision in the measurement of their effects. The practical sciences -- medicine, business, engineering, and artificial intelligence -- must act on causal conjectures based on more limited knowledge. Shafer's understanding of causality contributes to both of these uses of causal reasoning. His language for causal explanation can guide statistical investigation in the natural and social sciences, and it can also be used to formulate assumptions of causal uniformity needed for decision making in the practical sciences. Causal ideas permeate the use of probability and statistics in all branches of industry, commerce, government, and science. The Art of Causal Conjecture shows that causal ideas can be equally important in theory. It does not challenge the maxim that causation cannot be proven from statistics alone, but by bringing causal ideas into the foundations of probability, it allows causal conjectures to be more clearly quantified, debated, and confronted by statistical evidence.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262193689
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 554
Book Description
In The Art of Causal Conjecture, Glenn Shafer lays out a new mathematical and philosophical foundation for probability and uses it to explain concepts of causality used in statistics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy. The various disciplines that use causal reasoning differ in the relative weight they put on security and precision of knowledge as opposed to timeliness of action. The natural and social sciences seek high levels of certainty in the identification of causes and high levels of precision in the measurement of their effects. The practical sciences -- medicine, business, engineering, and artificial intelligence -- must act on causal conjectures based on more limited knowledge. Shafer's understanding of causality contributes to both of these uses of causal reasoning. His language for causal explanation can guide statistical investigation in the natural and social sciences, and it can also be used to formulate assumptions of causal uniformity needed for decision making in the practical sciences. Causal ideas permeate the use of probability and statistics in all branches of industry, commerce, government, and science. The Art of Causal Conjecture shows that causal ideas can be equally important in theory. It does not challenge the maxim that causation cannot be proven from statistics alone, but by bringing causal ideas into the foundations of probability, it allows causal conjectures to be more clearly quantified, debated, and confronted by statistical evidence.
The Poincare Conjecture
Author: Donal O'Shea
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802718949
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Henri Poincaré was one of the greatest mathematicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He revolutionized the field of topology, which studies properties of geometric configurations that are unchanged by stretching or twisting. The Poincaré conjecture lies at the heart of modern geometry and topology, and even pertains to the possible shape of the universe. The conjecture states that there is only one shape possible for a finite universe in which every loop can be contracted to a single point. Poincaré's conjecture is one of the seven "millennium problems" that bring a one-million-dollar award for a solution. Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematician, has offered a proof that is likely to win the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel prize, in August 2006. He also will almost certainly share a Clay Institute millennium award. In telling the vibrant story of The Poincaré Conjecture, Donal O'Shea makes accessible to general readers for the first time the meaning of the conjecture, and brings alive the field of mathematics and the achievements of generations of mathematicians whose work have led to Perelman's proof of this famous conjecture.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802718949
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
Henri Poincaré was one of the greatest mathematicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He revolutionized the field of topology, which studies properties of geometric configurations that are unchanged by stretching or twisting. The Poincaré conjecture lies at the heart of modern geometry and topology, and even pertains to the possible shape of the universe. The conjecture states that there is only one shape possible for a finite universe in which every loop can be contracted to a single point. Poincaré's conjecture is one of the seven "millennium problems" that bring a one-million-dollar award for a solution. Grigory Perelman, a Russian mathematician, has offered a proof that is likely to win the Fields Medal, the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel prize, in August 2006. He also will almost certainly share a Clay Institute millennium award. In telling the vibrant story of The Poincaré Conjecture, Donal O'Shea makes accessible to general readers for the first time the meaning of the conjecture, and brings alive the field of mathematics and the achievements of generations of mathematicians whose work have led to Perelman's proof of this famous conjecture.
Conjectures and Refutations
Author: Karl Raimund Popper
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415285940
Category : Knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 614
Book Description
Conjectures and Refutations is one of Karl Popper's most wide-ranging and popular works, notable not only for its acute insight into the way scientific knowledge grows, but also for applying those insights to politics and to history. It provides one of the clearest and most accessible statements of the fundamental idea that guided his work: not only our knowledge, but our aims and our standards, grow through an unending process of trial and error.
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415285940
Category : Knowledge, Theory of
Languages : en
Pages : 614
Book Description
Conjectures and Refutations is one of Karl Popper's most wide-ranging and popular works, notable not only for its acute insight into the way scientific knowledge grows, but also for applying those insights to politics and to history. It provides one of the clearest and most accessible statements of the fundamental idea that guided his work: not only our knowledge, but our aims and our standards, grow through an unending process of trial and error.
Proof, Logic, and Conjecture
Author: Robert S. Wolf
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
ISBN: 9780716730507
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 4
Book Description
This text is designed to teach students how to read and write proofs in mathematics and to acquaint them with how mathematicians investigate problems and formulate conjecture.
Publisher: W. H. Freeman
ISBN: 9780716730507
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 4
Book Description
This text is designed to teach students how to read and write proofs in mathematics and to acquaint them with how mathematicians investigate problems and formulate conjecture.
The Real Fatou Conjecture
Author: Jacek Graczyk
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691002583
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
In 1920, Perre Fatou expressed the conjecture that--except for special cases--all critical points of a rational map of the Riemann sphere tend to periodic orbits under iteration. This book provides a rigorous proof of the Real Fatou Conjecture--that in spite of the apparently elementary nature of a problem, its solution requires advanced tools of complex analysis.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691002583
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
In 1920, Perre Fatou expressed the conjecture that--except for special cases--all critical points of a rational map of the Riemann sphere tend to periodic orbits under iteration. This book provides a rigorous proof of the Real Fatou Conjecture--that in spite of the apparently elementary nature of a problem, its solution requires advanced tools of complex analysis.
Polynomial Automorphisms
Author: Arnoldus Richardus Petrus van den Essen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783764363505
Category : Automorphisms
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9783764363505
Category : Automorphisms
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
Darwin's Conjecture
Author: Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226346900
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 303
Book Description
A theoretical study dealing chiefly with matters of definition and clarification of terms and concepts involved in using Darwinian notions to model social phenomena.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226346900
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 303
Book Description
A theoretical study dealing chiefly with matters of definition and clarification of terms and concepts involved in using Darwinian notions to model social phenomena.
What Is Mathematics, Really?
Author: Reuben Hersh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199839395
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Most philosophers of mathematics treat it as isolated, timeless, ahistorical, inhuman. Reuben Hersh argues the contrary, that mathematics must be understood as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture, historically evolved, and intelligible only in a social context. Hersh pulls the screen back to reveal mathematics as seen by professionals, debunking many mathematical myths, and demonstrating how the "humanist" idea of the nature of mathematics more closely resembles how mathematicians actually work. At the heart of his book is a fascinating historical account of the mainstream of philosophy--ranging from Pythagoras, Descartes, and Spinoza, to Bertrand Russell, David Hilbert, and Rudolph Carnap--followed by the mavericks who saw mathematics as a human artifact, including Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Mill, and Lakatos. What is Mathematics, Really? reflects an insider's view of mathematical life, and will be hotly debated by anyone with an interest in mathematics or the philosophy of science.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199839395
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Most philosophers of mathematics treat it as isolated, timeless, ahistorical, inhuman. Reuben Hersh argues the contrary, that mathematics must be understood as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture, historically evolved, and intelligible only in a social context. Hersh pulls the screen back to reveal mathematics as seen by professionals, debunking many mathematical myths, and demonstrating how the "humanist" idea of the nature of mathematics more closely resembles how mathematicians actually work. At the heart of his book is a fascinating historical account of the mainstream of philosophy--ranging from Pythagoras, Descartes, and Spinoza, to Bertrand Russell, David Hilbert, and Rudolph Carnap--followed by the mavericks who saw mathematics as a human artifact, including Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Mill, and Lakatos. What is Mathematics, Really? reflects an insider's view of mathematical life, and will be hotly debated by anyone with an interest in mathematics or the philosophy of science.