The outer limits of reason : what science, mathematics, and logic cannot tell us / Noson S. Yanofsky.
Yanofsky, Noson S., 1967-
2013
Q175.32.K45 Y36 2013eb
Available Online

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Title The outer limits of reason : what science, mathematics, and logic cannot tell us / Noson S. Yanofsky.
Author Yanofsky, Noson S., 1967-
ISBN 9780262316774 (electronic book)
0262316773 (electronic book)
9780262019354
0262019353
Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2013]
Language English
Description 1 online resource
Call Number Q175.32.K45 Y36 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 001.01
Summary Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, this work studies what science, mathematics, and reason tell us cannot be revealed. In The Outer Limits of Reason, Noson Yanofsky considers what cannot be predicted, described, or known, and what will never be understood. He discusses the limitations of computers, physics, logic, and our own thought processes. Yanofsky describes simple tasks that would take computers trillions of centuries to complete and other problems that computers can never solve; perfectly formed English sentences that make no sense; different levels of infinity; the bizarre world of the quantum; the relevance of relativity theory; the causes of chaos theory; math problems that cannot be solved by normal means; and statements that are true but cannot be proven. He explains the limitations of our intuitions about the world -- our ideas about space, time, and motion, and the complex relationship between the knower and the known. Moving from the concrete to the abstract, from problems of everyday language to straightforward philosophical questions to the formalities of physics and mathematics, Yanofsky demonstrates a myriad of unsolvable problems and paradoxes. Exploring the various limitations of our knowledge, he shows that many of these limitations have a similar pattern and that by investigating these patterns, we can better understand the structure and limitations of reason itself. Yanofsky even attempts to look beyond the borders of reason to see what, if anything, is out there.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Outer limits of reason
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Language paradoxes
Philosophical conundrums
Infinity puzzles
Computing complexities
Computing impossibilities
Scientific limitations
Metascientific perplexities
Mathematical obstructions
Beyond reason.

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