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Showing reviews 1-5 of 83
poor execution, but perhaps impossible to do well in graphic novel form September 7, 2010
muddy glass (new york)
"logicomix" attempts to tell the story of the early twentieth century effort on the parts of some of the most brilliant minds in the mathematical community to provide a foundation for mathematics. for the most part, this graphic novel fails in its noble attempt. those who already know this material will find the treatment here quite lacking in depth and also erroneous at times. those who are seeing this material for the first time will likely not understand the entire enterprise as presented. however, some lenience should be granted to the two authors of "logicomix" because of the difficulty of the subject matter, especially since the authors are neither mathematicians nor philosophers.
the actual ideas hold second stage to the drama in this graphic novel. right from the beginning, the authors tell the reader that "logicomix" is not meant as a textbook on the philosophy of mathematics. indeed. one of the authors is a computer scientist and the treatment of the subject matter here is perverted to fit his perspective as a computer scientist. it's a shame that "logicomix" wasn't written with the consultation of a mathematician or a logician or a philosopher instead.
the narrative is choppy and contains stilted dialogue. i groaned at one point when a character explicitly states that he is using the reductio ad absurdum in a proof. other times, the exposition of the ideas clashes with the drama and both are diminished as a result. for example, the authors picked the truth values of paths in a maze as a means of explaining the logical connectives "and" and "or." there are simpler ways of explaining this, and furthermore the difference between "and" and "or" was probably obvious to most readers in the first place. the authors chose the maze example in order to illustrate a budding romance between bertrand russell and his first wife alys, but the pedantic explanations just get in the way.
presumably, the target audience for this book consists of intelligent readers who'd like to know more about mathematicians and their ideas, but don't want to get their hands dirty with the fine details as found in textbooks. i recommend constance reid's biographies "hilbert" and "courant," the latter being the spiritual successor to the former. reid's biographies are well researched, provide a vivid view into the lives of the legendary mathematicians centered at göttingen university, and will offer the reader an introduction to some of the important ideas along the way. mathematicians are some of the most interesting and complex people i have ever encountered, each with his or her own peculiarities. in my opinion, reid's biographies were able to capture this, while "logicomix" was not. ultimately, the graphic novel is probably an inadequate format to present the philosophy of mathematics to a wide audience.
Great writing and art September 3, 2010
C. J. Pearmon (Austin, TX, USA)
As someone who studied Philosophy and Logic in college, I appreciated this graphic novel. Logicomix tries to explain a fairly complicated subject, Logic and Mathematics, and succeeds fairly well.
The art is excellent. The story is well written. I didn't really like the back and forth between Bertrand Russell's story and the narration by the authors, but it wasn't overly interruptive and tolerable. The best parts of the story for me were the explorations into the links between madness and those who strive to make rational sense of the world. The book touches on this in several places, but I wouldn't have minded an even deeper exploration into that theme. But as it is, a really enjoyable story that makes Russell's life, Logic, and Math interesting.
Mathematical logic explained in a unique way, via a book in comic format July 19, 2010
Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States(cashbacher@yahoo.com))
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is the most interesting book where the story is told in comic form that I have ever read. The topic is the mathematical field known as logic and the primary theme is that noted pacifist Bertrand Russell is lecturing to a group at an American university shortly after Germany invaded Poland to start World War II. The audience is largely made up of isolationists and pacifists and they want to hear Russell explain to them why it is logical that the United States stay out of the war.
However, what they get is a history of the development of mathematical logic that starts with Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The work of giants in the field of mathematical logic such as Boole, Frege, Whitehead, Hilbert, Gödel, Wittgenstein, Turing and Von Neumann is explained. Some poetic license is taken with the real story, most specifically with the timing. For example, while the actions of people are largely correctly listed, there are a few meetings between principals that simply could not have taken place.
The history of the development of mathematical logic is so well explained that this book could be used as a supplemental text in courses of mathematical logic. Granted there is no great depth or proofs, but it would be so fun to read that those shortcomings would be rendered irrelevant. One odd and fascinating fact that recurs throughout is the strong current of mental illness that runs through the families of the greatest logicians of all time.
New trend of Mathematics Education? July 17, 2010
Frederico Lopes (Brazil)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's sure a very good book, very informative, despite the authors' poetic licenses. You can read the entire book in an hour or so, and you reach the end asking for more. Perhaps mathematics educators, like myself, should consider the use of comics more seriously in their classes. Or more mathematics educators trying to do the same: the book itself shows us how the authors have done it. In fact, it's a history inside a history, two threads going side by side till the end. Very well done.
logicomix review June 20, 2010
D. Jeffrey Weil (Long Beach CA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have only read two other graphic novels: Maus and Persepolis. The form made it much easier to digest the problems in Bertrand Russell's odyssey.
The artwork was excellent.
I am recommending this book to friends.
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Showing reviews 1-5 of 83
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