AD Infinitum... the Ghost in Turing's Machine: Taking God Out of Mathematics and Putting the Body Back In. an Essay in Corporeal Semiotics

by Brian Rotman

Book Overview

This ambitious work puts forward a new account of mathematics-as-language that challenges the coherence of the accepted idea of infinity and suggests a startlingly new conception of counting. The author questions the familiar, classical, interpretation of whole numbers held by mathematicians and scientists, and replaces it with an original and radical alternative--what the author calls non-Euclidean arithmetic.

The author's entry point is...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804721289
• ISBN13: 9780804721288
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Absolutely brilliant alternative to Platonism

Ever since the first explosion of mathematics in the West, some 2500 years ago, philosophers have wondered from whence does mathematics arise? For most of this time, and for most of these questioners, the answer has been some form of "platonism" - some variation on the view that numbers and other mathematical "objects" exist in a transcendent realm, a priori to, and independent from the material world. Throughout history, several attempts have been made to articulate a coherent alternative to this essentially religious view. At last Brian Rotman has succeeded in this task - and the view he offers is astonishing in its elegance and satisfaction. A truly brilliant and deeply important work, Ad Infinitum should be required reading for all those interested in the philosophy of mathematics.