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Martin Gardner's legacy in mathematics and science is well established, and never is he so at home than when picking apart paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Yet like Isaac Asimov, Gardner's interests encompass a wide range of views and arguments. His wit and encyclopedic knowledge have made him a sought-after contributor to Discover, Nature, Psychology Today, and The New York Review of Books. A delightful collection of his best essays, Gardner's Whys & Wherefores includes articles on the puzzles in James Joyce's Ulysses and on the fantasies of Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Lord Dunsany, Gilbert Chesterton, and H.G. Wells. Gardner expresses strong opinions about the "anthropic principle," computer games capable of discovering scientific laws, the philosophy of W.V. Quine, Marvin Minsky's view of the workings of the mind, the idiosyncrasies of social theorist Allan Bloom, the reality of unknown digits that "sleep" in pi, and whether physicists are really on the verge of discovering Everything. A delightful bit of publishing history is a hilarious selection from The New York Review of Books in which Gardner, writing under a pseudonym, blasts his own book, The Ways of a Philosophical Scrivener. Exciting, provocative, and enduring, Gardner's Whys & Wherefores is a distinct pleasure.… (mais)
Most people know of Martin Gardner, if they know of him at all, through his Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions column in Scientific American, and the books that came from those columns. But Gardner's interests are more diverse than that, and this book gives some insight into the breadth of his intellect.
It's a book of two parts. The first collects essays on a variety of topics - word games, calculating prodigys, the writing of Lord Dunsany, bad poetry, formula jokes and puzzles in "Ulysses", to pick a few. The second part consists of reviews: of Quine's autobiography, Needham's "Science in Ancient China", and many others.
This is an interesting book on many levels. Gardner writes well and entertainingly on many topics and manages to have opinions without being opinionated. Every one of his reviews both does justice to its subject and educates the reader (did you know, for instance, that H G Wells wrote a novel featuring atomic bombs in 1914, only shortly after Rutherford had first demonstrated that atoms had internal structure.)
It's a surprise to discover Gardner's varied sense of humour. His articles on word play and Joyce reveal a fondness for what British comedians would describe as 'knob jokes', and he's also a fan of appalling puns.
This a varied collection of primarily short pieces. It's unlikely that every one will be of interest to every reader, but most should find something here of interest and they all illuminate the mind of a notable individual. ( )
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
But what is finality? For just as it is always possible to ask the why of every why, so it is always possible to ask the wherefore of every wherefore. Supposing that there is a God, then wherefore God?
- Miguel de Unamuno, The Tragic Sense of Life, Chapter X
Dedicatória
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
In Memoriam: Bob and Betty
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Martin Gardner's legacy in mathematics and science is well established, and never is he so at home than when picking apart paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Yet like Isaac Asimov, Gardner's interests encompass a wide range of views and arguments. His wit and encyclopedic knowledge have made him a sought-after contributor to Discover, Nature, Psychology Today, and The New York Review of Books. A delightful collection of his best essays, Gardner's Whys & Wherefores includes articles on the puzzles in James Joyce's Ulysses and on the fantasies of Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Lord Dunsany, Gilbert Chesterton, and H.G. Wells. Gardner expresses strong opinions about the "anthropic principle," computer games capable of discovering scientific laws, the philosophy of W.V. Quine, Marvin Minsky's view of the workings of the mind, the idiosyncrasies of social theorist Allan Bloom, the reality of unknown digits that "sleep" in pi, and whether physicists are really on the verge of discovering Everything. A delightful bit of publishing history is a hilarious selection from The New York Review of Books in which Gardner, writing under a pseudonym, blasts his own book, The Ways of a Philosophical Scrivener. Exciting, provocative, and enduring, Gardner's Whys & Wherefores is a distinct pleasure.
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(3.91)
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It's a book of two parts. The first collects essays on a variety of topics - word games, calculating prodigys, the writing of Lord Dunsany, bad poetry, formula jokes and puzzles in "Ulysses", to pick a few. The second part consists of reviews: of Quine's autobiography, Needham's "Science in Ancient China", and many others.
This is an interesting book on many levels. Gardner writes well and entertainingly on many topics and manages to have opinions without being opinionated. Every one of his reviews both does justice to its subject and educates the reader (did you know, for instance, that H G Wells wrote a novel featuring atomic bombs in 1914, only shortly after Rutherford had first demonstrated that atoms had internal structure.)
It's a surprise to discover Gardner's varied sense of humour. His articles on word play and Joyce reveal a fondness for what British comedians would describe as 'knob jokes', and he's also a fan of appalling puns.
This a varied collection of primarily short pieces. It's unlikely that every one will be of interest to every reader, but most should find something here of interest and they all illuminate the mind of a notable individual. (