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  • Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace book cover
  • Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace book cover
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Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity

by David Foster Wallace

A history of infinity and its mathematical consequences

$38.33 USD
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AlbakiReads Editorial

A history of infinity and its mathematical consequences

David Foster Wallace traces the history of infinity as both a mathematical concept and a longstanding puzzle. The account gives particular attention to Georg Cantor’s nineteenth-century work on different sizes of infinity, the controversy it provoked, and its connections to set theory, analytic philosophy, and computer technology. The book brings a foundational question in higher mathematics into view through the ideas and disputes that formed around it.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in the history of mathematics and the concept of infinity.
  • Those curious about Georg Cantor, set theory, or the links between mathematics and philosophy.

Themes

Infinity and mathematical paradoxGeorg Cantor’s work and its receptionSet theory and the wider influence of mathematics

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Book overview

One of the outstanding voices of his generation, David Foster Wallace has won a large and devoted following for the intellectual ambition and bravura style of his fiction and essays. Now he brings his considerable talents to the history of one of math's most enduring puzzles: the seemingly paradoxical nature of infinity.

Is infinity a valid mathematical property or a meaningless abstraction? The nineteenth-century mathematical genius Georg Cantor's answer to this question not only surprised him but also shook the very foundations upon which math had been built. Cantor's counterintuitive discovery of a progression of larger and larger infinities created controversy in his time and may have hastened his mental breakdown, but it also helped lead to the development of set theory, analytic philosophy, and even computer technology.

Smart, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding, Wallace's tour de force brings immediate and high-profile recognition to the bizarre and fascinating world of higher mathematics.
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