| View Larger Image | Is God a Mathematician? | Hardcoverby Mario Livio (Author)
| List Price: | $26.00 | | Price: | $18.72 | | You Save: | $7.28 (28%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | Simon & Schuster | | Page Count: | 320 Pages | | Publication Date: | January 06, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 29,682th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780743294058
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that -- mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is "a product of human thought that is independent of experience," how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us?Mathematicians themselves often insist that their work has no practical effect. The British mathematician G. H. Hardy went so far as to describe his own work this way: "No discovery of mine has made, or is likely to make, directly or indirectly, for good or ill, the least difference to the amenity of the world." He was wrong. The Hardy-Weinberg law allows population geneticists to predict how genes are transmitted from one generation to the next, and Hardy's work on the theory of numbers found unexpected implications in the development of codes.Physicist and author Mario Livio brilliantly explores mathematical ideas from Pythagoras to the present day as he shows us how intriguing questions and ingenious answers have led to ever deeper insights into our world. This fascinating book will interest anyone curious about the human mind, the scientific world, and the relationship between them. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 31 reviews)
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The title does not match the content by Kairos  1 Stars
November 26, 2009
When a scientist decides to give that title, a whichever reader expects much more that what the author did actually provide; i.e. a simple historical excursus about some of the best mathematical minds of the past. Unfortunately, not only the author doesn't satisfy the above expectations, but also he provides in the text in more and more points the same promises for this. And, as also expressed by another commenter, what remains at the end is a simple sequence of facts and anecdocts which a whichever diligent student has been able to acquire during his studies.
Last but not least there are some factual errors which could have been easily corrected with a better proof correction.
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The relevance of mathematics in physical reality by Rama Rao (Annandale, VA, USA)  3 Stars
November 02, 2009
This is a historical review of the evolution of mathematics in physics and philosophy. The author and publishers have used a catchy title for the book to enhance its marketability. I was looking for a philosophical analysis of the basic laws (and equations) of physics and how it influenced the thought on physical reality. There is no discussion of how consciousness fit in within all this. If God used mathematics to create the laws of physics, then how did he create consciousness? Did he use mathematics to link consciousness with the physical reality? What are the roles of dimensionless physical constants such as structural constant and the value of Pi that God created? These questions are not fully explored.
There are nine chapters in the book, and a significant part of the book gives a historical account of the work of early Greek philosophers leading up to the work of modern philosophers, mathematicians and physicists. There is fair amount of discussion on the theory of curves, analytical geometry, Cartesian coordinate system, Pythagoras theorem, the evolution of calculus and differential equations.
The author proposes that mathematical theories have two aspects; active and passive. In active theories, laws of nature are formulated in applicable mathematical terms. The terms include mathematical entities, relations, and equations that were developed with an application of mind for the topic under consideration. The researchers tend to perceive the similarities between the properties of the mathematical concepts and the observed phenomenon. One could conclude the theories were tailored to the observations (E.g., Newtonian Physics). The passive effectiveness refers to cases in which abstract mathematical theories were developed with non-intended applications for possible use in future models, such as knot theory, and Riemannian geometry. Invention are; calculus by Newton, and topological (geometrical) ideas in the context of string theory; or the application of Riemannian geometry in general relativity, and group theory in particle physicists are examples of mathematical discoveries. The accuracy and predictive power of mathematics are equally important. There are numerous examples for predictive power such as; prediction of antiparticles, Maxwell's prediction of waves associated with electrical and magnetic fields, prediction Bosons, and W particles by electroweak theory, and the quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicted the magnetic moment of an electron with a great accuracy.
Does mathematics has an independent existence from human mind or they have application beyond the context they were originally developed? Platonists view mathematics as discovery because it dwells in the abstract eternal world of mathematical forms. Some Platonists believe that mathematical structures are in fact a real part of the natural world. Max Tegmark of MIT states that the nature is mathematics, period. The answer to mathematics being "invented or discovered" question can therefore be gleaned from a careful examination of clues from a variety of domains. Since this physical world is entirely independent of humans, Tegmark maintains, its description must be free of any human conceptions. In other words, the final theory cannot include any concepts such as "subatomic particles," "vibrating strings," "warped spacetime," or other humanly conceived constructs. He concludes that the cosmos involves only abstract concepts and the relations among them. The author believes that math¬ematics is a combination of inventions and discoveries; the axioms of Euclidean geometry as a concept is an invention, just as the rules of chess are an invention. The axioms are supplemented by a variety of invented concepts, such as triangles, parallelograms, ellipses, the golden ratio, and so on. The theorems of Euclidean geometry, on the other hand, were by and large discoveries; they were the paths linking the different concepts. In some cases, the proofs generated the theorems mathematicians examined what they could prove and from that they deduced the theorems. Humans invent mathematical concepts and discover the relations among these concepts. Some empirical discoveries surely preceded the formation of concepts but concepts lead to theorems.
The limited explanatory power of mathematics in biology or medicine is a problem for mathematics to have universal role in physical reality. Because evolutionary biologists argue that the human evolution naturally selected them for survival since they had the best models of reality in their minds. Hence human logic was forced on us by the physical world through the process of natural selection.
The mathematics is effective in explaining the physical world because the natural world is not random; it has structure, organization and patterns, mathematics is a logically relevant. Atoms behave in precise mathematical ways when they emit and absorb energy. String theory (if proved correct) will prove that the universe is a geometrical structure and physical reality is mathematical. On a hypothetical note, if were contacted by aliens, communication could be a problem, but aliens will have the same laws of physics, and the common language would be mathematics.
1. The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number
2. Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry
3. A Passion for Mathematics: Numbers, Puzzles, Madness, Religion, and the Quest for Reality
4. Reality's Mirror: Exploring the Mathematics of Symmetry (Wiley Science Edition)
5. Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics
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Interesting - But Ultimately Misalbeled and Biased by Michael J. Mcdermott 3 Stars
October 04, 2009
I actually enjoyed parts of this book, and it would be quite useful in a lower level (grade / middle) school setting to help provide some background to students about what the field encompasses and how it developed.
Unfortunately the Title is not only misleading, but ultimately ignored in the final analysis and summation. It is clear that the author has no fondness for the Catholic Church, but carries the torch past the scientifically agnostic and in to scientific atheism, contrary to the views of many of the 'Great's' he quotes.
Telling of the short shift and consideration of 'God' gets in a book with GOD in the Title is the following:"at a time when there are attempts to introduce biblical creationism as an alternative "Scientific" theory (under the thinly veiled title of "intelligent Design"), it os good to remember that Galileo already fought this battle almost four hundred years ago, and won!"(P-94)
No attempt to define or distinguish any 'thinly veiled' difference between the two, even though he talks of Galileo (and so many others) as still being a Believer in what is clearly some sort of "Intelligent Design". Gosh, even Descartes 'Vortex" theory gets more ink than the notion that the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Math (and its ability to explain) might possibly include investigation of the influence of the "GOD" mentioned in the title.
It smacks of the same type arrogance that led others to put down Galileo, without their own proofs to contradict him, for this author to dismiss 'answers' he doesn't like for that which he himself cannot explain, without even running the numbers to show why the opposition is so completely wrong.
If he wanted to write a treatise trashing 'GOD' and or Religion and or Catholic / Christianity, then intellectual honesty should have found another vehicle than Math, particularly as he avoids discussion of the 'scientific' nature of both Temporal Eternity and Spatial Infinity, despite playing mathematical games with them.
Some of the information in the book was useful to teachers and those wanting a basic history of Math, or just a fairly entertaining if technical read. Some of it was a cop out by an author who promised more in the title than he even attempted to deliver.
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A Different Title Was Needed For This Book by Harmon A. Prives (Columbia, MD) 3 Stars
August 31, 2009
When I first spotted Mario Livio's book, "Is God A Mathematician," I was intrigued but did not have enough time to read the brief description of the book. I was anticipating a book which was going to discuss the cosmos, creation, man's place in the universe, mathematics, physics, and of course, God. As I continued to read the book I came to the realization that what Mario Livio was aiming for was a theory of whether mathematics was developed by man to explain the universe, or rather were the mathematical concepts just waiting for man to uncover them as Michelangelo said of his sculptures, that the sculpture was within the marble and he merely was removing the marble to reveal what lay inside.
The book is not an easy read and quite a bit of it is devoted to brief biographies of famous mathematicians and their contributions to that field. In conclusion, I wish that Amazon had a system other than stars to rate books. As in the case of "Is God A Mathematician?", the star rating is an inadequate way to judge a book, especially this one. If you are a mathematician you may find this book of great interest. However, if you are a student of theology, or other philosophical endeavors I believe that this book will answer no questions nor raise any new ones.
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Very interesting by Joseph Oppenheim (San Diego, CA USA)  5 Stars
August 01, 2009
"Is God a Mathematician?" explores whether math was invented or discovered. The author goes through most of the book detailing how math has evolved over the years with each new advancement explaining more and more of nature. Then, he concludes by saying math is partly invented and partly discovered, using the "Microsoft Windows Effect" to explain that just as the brain evolved to deal with the physical world, it developed a language, math, suited to it. The "Windows Effect," because there could have been some other operating system to have dominated, just that Windows was the first to do it.
I suppose one could argue that just as math has evolved to explain more of nature, it could still evolve more and more, explaining more and more of nature. And, even if it never explains everything, it could still get closer and closer and since nature is infinite that math would never explain all of it, and that doesn't matter since God, or whatever force there is above all, could still be a mathematician. Anyway, even though this book may not resolve things, the author does give a pretty good analysis and leaves a reader better able to contemplate the question posed by the author. The author covers things like:
1. Descartes was the principal architect of describing nature in terms of math rather than by the senses. He merged geometry and algebra with his Cartesian coordinate system.
2. Pythagoras found irrational numbers.
3. Plato thought God geometrizes.
4. Archimedes - author says is the greatest mathematician. Perceived math as a language of the universe. Other two greatest: Newton and Gauss.
5. Galileo essentially said math is the grammar of science. Because he basically was saying that human could understand God through math that is why he was brought to trial for heresy.
6. Newton took Descartes' math to explain the cosmos - gravity. Newton and Descartes were religious. To Newton, God was a mathematician.
7. Newton, with calculus, could measure change finely.
8. Bernouli brought in probability to explain things which couldn't be exactly measured. Gauss brought in both probability and statistics to go beyond the physical sciences. Normal distributions, standard deviations and correlation coefficients.
9. Also, non-Euclidean geometry went further in explaining the universe.
10. Bertrand Russell - math can also be reduced to logic - to understand thought, reasoning.
11. Then, Boolean algebra. Also, knot theory lead to understanding DNA, its double helix, then also string theory.
12. Einstein - general and special relativity - warps in time and space.
Again, the author goes through showing how our understanding of the universe has increased along with new discoveries (or were they inventions or a combination) finally concluding that math has its limitations like in explaining where a roulette wheel and ball will end up. Anyway, the book is very interesting.
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| The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World's Most Astonishing Number
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