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Title: Conversations on Mind, Matter, and Mathematics by Jean-Pierre Changeux, Alain Connes, M. B. DeBevoise ISBN: 0-691-00405-6 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 07 December, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Pondering the philosophy of understanding mathematics
Comment: When reading this account of a series of conversations between Jean-Pierre Changeux and Alain Connes, two main themes emerge. The first is how little progress there has been made in the philosophy of mathematics and knowledge since the time of Plato and the second is how much fun it is to discuss it. Changeux is Director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur and Connes is a previous winner of the Fields Medal for mathematical excellence. His prime areas of work are in analysis and geometry. These two superb minds jointly explore the realm of consciousness, knowledge, and the inherent ambiguities in the search for truth and understanding.
As the conversations progress, many of the main themes of philosophy are covered, with an emphasis on mathematics and the abstract nature of the human mind. My favorite chapter was "The Neuronal Mathematician", where the neural basis of understanding theorems is discussed. If it were possible for Plato to eavesdrop on the conversation, he would be baffled by the references to computers, but the discussion on the "forms" of mathematics would seem like old news. One very profound question raised in this book bears repeating, "Is it necessary for a computer to experience pain and suffering to be considered conscious?"
A book that should be thought of as a primer only, this is one work that can keep you thinking and pondering for years.
Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.
Rating: 5
Summary: a pleasant surprise
Comment: There are many "dialogue" books of this sort, but personally I haven't read anything matching the brilliance of this one. The two men featured in this book, both true masters in their fields, represent two very different philsophical views, which become quite obvious immediately, yet they manage to engage in an intellectual dialogue free of the venom characterizing so much academic polemics nowadays, true to the spirit of those "pre-modern" French intellectuals, even reminiscent of Socrates & company. This is a minor masterpiece.
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Title: What Makes Us Think? : A Neuroscientist and a Philosopher Argue about Ethics, Human Nature, and the Brain by Jean-Pierre Changeux, Paul Ricoeur, M. B. DeBevoise ISBN: 0691092850 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 04 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach by Christof Koch ISBN: 0974707708 Publisher: Roberts and Co. Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Wider than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness by Gerald M. Edelman ISBN: 0300102291 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 10 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Brain-Wise: Studies in Neurophilosophy by Patricia Smith Churchland ISBN: 026253200X Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 02 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Physiology of Truth : Neuroscience and Human Knowledge by Jean-Pierre Changeux ISBN: 0674012836 Publisher: Belknap Pr Pub. Date: 15 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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