Books by Ernest Nagel

In 1931 Kurt Godel published his fundamental paper, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems. This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. The authors provide an explanation of the main ideas and broad implications of Godel's discovery.

From the Introduction.In 1931 there appeared in a German scientific periodical a relatively short paper with the forbidding title ""Uber formal unentscheidbare Satze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme"" (""On Formally Undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems""). Its author was Kurt Godel, then a young mathematician of 25 at the University of Vienna and since 1938 a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The paper is a milestone in the history of logic and mathematics. When Harvard University awarded Godel an honorary degree in 1952, the citation described the work as one of the most important advances in logic in modern times.At the time of its appearance, however, neither the title of Godel's paper nor its content was intelligible to most mathematicians.

A combination of science and accessibility, this book is for both mathematicians and the idly curious, offering those with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. It presents a readable explanation to both scholars and non-specialists alike.