Uncountable

A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present

David Nirenberg, Ricardo L. Nirenberg (Autoren)

Buch | Softcover

432 Seiten

2024
University of Chicago Press (Verlag)
978-0-226-82836-7 (ISBN)

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Ranging from math to literature to philosophy, Uncountable explains how numbers triumphed as the basis of knowledge—and compromise our sense of humanity.

Our knowledge of mathematics has structured much of what we think we know about ourselves as individuals and communities, shaping our psychologies, sociologies, and economies. In pursuit of a more predictable and more controllable cosmos, we have extended mathematical insights and methods to more and more aspects of the world. Today those powers are greater than ever, as computation is applied to virtually every aspect of human activity. Yet, in the process, are we losing sight of the human? When we apply mathematics so broadly, what do we gain and what do we lose, and at what risk to humanity?

These are the questions that David and Ricardo L. Nirenberg ask in Uncountable, a provocative account of how numerical relations became the cornerstone of human claims to knowledge, truth, and certainty. There is a limit to these number-based claims, they argue, which they set out to explore. The Nirenbergs, father and son, bring together their backgrounds in math, history, literature, religion, and philosophy, interweaving scientific experiments with readings of poems, setting crises in mathematics alongside world wars, and putting medieval Muslim and Buddhist philosophers in conversation with Einstein, Schrödinger, and other giants of modern physics. The result is a powerful lesson in what counts as knowledge and its deepest implications for how we live our lives.

David Nirenberg is dean of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, where he also teaches in the Committee of Social Thought and the Department of History. His books include Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition; Neighboring Faiths: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism in the Middle Ages and Today; and Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages. After doing research in mathematics for a dozen years, David’s father, Ricardo L. Nirenberg, turned to his other calling: philosophy and literature. He has published numerous essays, short fiction, and the novels Cry Uncle and Wave Mechanics: a Love Story. He is the founder and editor of the literary journal offcourse.org.

Introduction: Playing with Pebbles
1 World War Crisis
2 The Greeks: A Protohistory of Theory
3 Plato, Aristotle, and the Future of Western Thought
4 Monotheism’s Math Problem
5 From Descartes to Kant: An Outrageously Succinct History of Philosophy
6 What Numbers Need: Or, When Does 2 + 2 = 4?
7 Physics (and Poetry): Willing Sameness and Difference
8 Axioms of Desire: Economics and the Social Sciences
9 Killing Time
10 Ethical Conclusions
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Names

Erscheinungsdatum	17.04.2024
Zusatzinfo	1 halftone
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	567 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Ethik
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
ISBN-10	0-226-82836-0 / 0226828360
ISBN-13	978-0-226-82836-7 / 9780226828367
Zustand	Neuware