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Logicomix: An epic search for truth

Logicomix: An epic search for truth

By Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou

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Ratings:

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5 (598 ratings)

Length: 315 pages21 hours

Publisher:: Bloomsbury USA
Released:: Jul 28, 2015
ISBN:: 9781632864802
Format:: Book

Description

This exceptional graphic novel recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his agonized search for absolute truth, Russell crosses paths with legendary thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel, and finds a passionate student in the great Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal-to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics-continues to loom before him. Through love and hate, peace and war, Russell persists in the dogged mission that threatens to claim both his career and his personal happiness, finally driving him to the brink of insanity.

This story is at the same time a historical novel and an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics and modern philosophy. With rich characterizations and expressive, atmospheric artwork, the book spins the pursuit of these ideas into a highly satisfying tale.

Probing and ingeniously layered, the book throws light on Russell's inner struggles while setting them in the context of the timeless questions he spent his life trying to answer. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between an ideal rationality and the unchanging, flawed fabric of reality.

Logicomix: An epic search for truth

Book Actions

Book Information

Logicomix: An epic search for truth

By Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou

Ratings:

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5 (598 ratings)

Length: 315 pages21 hours

Description

This exceptional graphic novel recounts the spiritual odyssey of philosopher Bertrand Russell. In his agonized search for absolute truth, Russell crosses paths with legendary thinkers like Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel, and finds a passionate student in the great Ludwig Wittgenstein. But his most ambitious goal-to establish unshakable logical foundations of mathematics-continues to loom before him. Through love and hate, peace and war, Russell persists in the dogged mission that threatens to claim both his career and his personal happiness, finally driving him to the brink of insanity.

This story is at the same time a historical novel and an accessible explication of some of the biggest ideas of mathematics and modern philosophy. With rich characterizations and expressive, atmospheric artwork, the book spins the pursuit of these ideas into a highly satisfying tale.

Probing and ingeniously layered, the book throws light on Russell's inner struggles while setting them in the context of the timeless questions he spent his life trying to answer. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between an ideal rationality and the unchanging, flawed fabric of reality.

Publisher:: Bloomsbury USA
Released:: Jul 28, 2015
ISBN:: 9781632864802
Format:: Book

About the author

Apostolos Doxiadis

Apostolis Doxadis received a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from Columbia University and a Master's Degree in Applied Mathematics from the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris. He has run a number of successful computer companies, as well as written and directed for both the screen and the stage. The second of his two feature films, Tetriem, won the prize of the International Center for Artistic Cinema at the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival. Mr. Doxiadis lives in Athens, Greece

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What people think about Logicomix

3.0

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

598 ratings / 47 reviews

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Rating: 3 out of 5 stars(3/5)

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A decent, if shaky, biography of Bertrand Russell, with brief explanations of the chief problems of logic and philosophy he took on. For someone who's already read about this, it's pretty shallow and suffers from the "Best Of" disease, but I also don't see it making a huge impact on readers new to Russell, Cantor, Wittgenstein, and Goedel. It's all a bit wishy-washy, with a distracting self-referential streak, with authors arguing about the book's flaws themselves; I'm sure it seemed charming, but it comes across as confusing more than anything else. The illustration style is great, with some unconvincing color work.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars(3/5)

A decent, if shaky, biography of Bertrand Russell, with brief explanations of the chief problems of logic and philosophy he took on. For someone who's already read about this, it's pretty shallow and suffers from the "Best Of" disease, but I also don't see it making a huge impact on readers new to Russell, Cantor, Wittgenstein, and Goedel. It's all a bit wishy-washy, with a distracting self-referential streak, with authors arguing about the book's flaws themselves; I'm sure it seemed charming, but it comes across as confusing more than anything else. The illustration style is great, with some unconvincing color work.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

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I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The art is fun, and I found the discussions about logic and its foibles interesting. I think I would have liked it better as a straight biography of Bertrand Russell; the drive to make a fictional story out of what is actually a pretty interesting subject confuses me. Why add layers of fiction to something good enough on its own? I admit that the idea of "historical fiction" just doesn't do it for me. Makes no sense. Tell a true story and call it historical, or tell a traditional story and call it fiction. I don't like blending the two.And, finally, the end of the book lost me. What was the point? Maybe I am too tired to put it all together. But, rather than wrapping things up in a meaningful, poignant way, I felt like the end just sort of petered out. Like they were just done and wanted to draw some cool pictures.But still, worth a couple days' read.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The art is fun, and I found the discussions about logic and its foibles interesting. I think I would have liked it better as a straight biography of Bertrand Russell; the drive to make a fictional story out of what is actually a pretty interesting subject confuses me. Why add layers of fiction to something good enough on its own? I admit that the idea of "historical fiction" just doesn't do it for me. Makes no sense. Tell a true story and call it historical, or tell a traditional story and call it fiction. I don't like blending the two.And, finally, the end of the book lost me. What was the point? Maybe I am too tired to put it all together. But, rather than wrapping things up in a meaningful, poignant way, I felt like the end just sort of petered out. Like they were just done and wanted to draw some cool pictures.But still, worth a couple days' read.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

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Av nice introduction to the hunt for mathematical certainty during the first half of the 19th century with Bertrand Russell himself as the protagonist. The authors themselves claim that this book is NOT factual but merely inspired by real events and discussions. To me this quite OK when it is stated, but it also consists a danger, as the matters at hand are hard (for me at least) to grasp and simplifications can lead you to believe you understand something you actually don't. In any case this is an interesting overview which as far as I can tell certainly tries to be accurate.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

Av nice introduction to the hunt for mathematical certainty during the first half of the 19th century with Bertrand Russell himself as the protagonist. The authors themselves claim that this book is NOT factual but merely inspired by real events and discussions. To me this quite OK when it is stated, but it also consists a danger, as the matters at hand are hard (for me at least) to grasp and simplifications can lead you to believe you understand something you actually don't. In any case this is an interesting overview which as far as I can tell certainly tries to be accurate.

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Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)

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The idea behind Logicomix in and of itself is fairly unique and hard to imagine (which I suppose lends itself well to the novel's theme of reality sometimes being a rather big object of uncertainty that is difficult to represent through abstraction, and that this may or may not lead to, or arise from, mental complications such as neuroticism), being a pseudo biography of (mostly mathematical) philosopher Bertrand Russel and his attempts to build foundations for mathematics with other big figures in this field at the time, such as Wittgenstein and Kurt Godel, that is also a graphic novel. I say pseudo biography because the authors are clear to point out that they've taken some liberties with Russel's life to make it seem more like an actual novel or story rather than a non-fictional biography. This isn't to say it's a complete "what if" kind of novel, as the story does in fact follow Russel's life accurately for the most part, especially when it comes to his and other philosophers' main arguments, but some meetings between characters in the story are either loosely supported by real evidence, or probably untrue.

Either way, the result is a rather interesting novel-biography that not only has a fairly nice-looking art style to it, that is perhaps deliberately minimalistic to an extent to compliment the theme of "pure simplicity" that the authors imply at least some mathematicians wish to attain, and also has a lovely amount of detail to the settings and inspired interpretations of actual philosophers (seeing Wittgenstein's huge eyes was fairly enjoyable from the moment he entered the stage), but is also a great, "user-friendly" introduction to mathematics in general and an enjoyable exploration into what it means to be a mathematician, philosopher, analytic, or anyone interested in "certain truth" really. Two other great themes behind the book, I'd say, is that it A) Gives readers characters to relate to with its makers, as the authors and artists often chime in to break the fourth wall and show their reactions to various events throughout the book and discussions on how to best write it, and (B) Shows how math truly is 'everywhere'. I had heard about this before in a TED Talk, but it wasn't until Wittgenstein started comparing language to abstract symbols and Russel discussed his attempts to utilize logic as a pacifist to solve the political problems of the two world wars that I truly began to get a better understanding of what this idea means.

All in all, it's a delight to read with a unique premise that is actually pulled very well off. If you're at all surprised by the notion of a math book that is also a page-turner and character study, then you may want to take a look into this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5/5)

The idea behind Logicomix in and of itself is fairly unique and hard to imagine (which I suppose lends itself well to the novel's theme of reality sometimes being a rather big object of uncertainty that is difficult to represent through abstraction, and that this may or may not lead to, or arise from, mental complications such as neuroticism), being a pseudo biography of (mostly mathematical) philosopher Bertrand Russel and his attempts to build foundations for mathematics with other big figures in this field at the time, such as Wittgenstein and Kurt Godel, that is also a graphic novel. I say pseudo biography because the authors are clear to point out that they've taken some liberties with Russel's life to make it seem more like an actual novel or story rather than a non-fictional biography. This isn't to say it's a complete "what if" kind of novel, as the story does in fact follow Russel's life accurately for the most part, especially when it comes to his and other philosophers' main arguments, but some meetings between characters in the story are either loosely supported by real evidence, or probably untrue.

Either way, the result is a rather interesting novel-biography that not only has a fairly nice-looking art style to it, that is perhaps deliberately minimalistic to an extent to compliment the theme of "pure simplicity" that the authors imply at least some mathematicians wish to attain, and also has a lovely amount of detail to the settings and inspired interpretations of actual philosophers (seeing Wittgenstein's huge eyes was fairly enjoyable from the moment he entered the stage), but is also a great, "user-friendly" introduction to mathematics in general and an enjoyable exploration into what it means to be a mathematician, philosopher, analytic, or anyone interested in "certain truth" really. Two other great themes behind the book, I'd say, is that it A) Gives readers characters to relate to with its makers, as the authors and artists often chime in to break the fourth wall and show their reactions to various events throughout the book and discussions on how to best write it, and (B) Shows how math truly is 'everywhere'. I had heard about this before in a TED Talk, but it wasn't until Wittgenstein started comparing language to abstract symbols and Russel discussed his attempts to utilize logic as a pacifist to solve the political problems of the two world wars that I truly began to get a better understanding of what this idea means.

All in all, it's a delight to read with a unique premise that is actually pulled very well off. If you're at all surprised by the notion of a math book that is also a page-turner and character study, then you may want to take a look into this book.

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Rating: 2 out of 5 stars(2/5)

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Well the fact that it took me months to finish this should tell you how much I liked it. The parts about Bertrand Russell's childhood and life were interesting, but the parts about logic, not so much. I didn't really like the drawing, either.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars(2/5)

Well the fact that it took me months to finish this should tell you how much I liked it. The parts about Bertrand Russell's childhood and life were interesting, but the parts about logic, not so much. I didn't really like the drawing, either.

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Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

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While I commend the effort, I wonder who the supposed audience for this Graphic Novel really is.Case in point: I studied Godel, and I have a bit more of the vaguest idea of what his proof did to Russel's efforts.I can't say that the graphic novel is making a poor effort to explain it, but for really judging it, you need a complete newcomer to the field.Find one, and ask him/her what he got from the book.How many (newcomers) would buy the book in order to get a better understanding of Godel's Theorem? How many (of those who don't know it) would care even a little bit?So, if you are "geek" and know the field already, it's interesting, if not "great".For everyone else, I am afraid it will fail to even register.Please prove me wrong... did you lend it to non-mathematically friends? With what results?

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars(4/5)

While I commend the effort, I wonder who the supposed audience for this Graphic Novel really is.Case in point: I studied Godel, and I have a bit more of the vaguest idea of what his proof did to Russel's efforts.I can't say that the graphic novel is making a poor effort to explain it, but for really judging it, you need a complete newcomer to the field.Find one, and ask him/her what he got from the book.How many (newcomers) would buy the book in order to get a better understanding of Godel's Theorem? How many (of those who don't know it) would care even a little bit?So, if you are "geek" and know the field already, it's interesting, if not "great".For everyone else, I am afraid it will fail to even register.Please prove me wrong... did you lend it to non-mathematically friends? With what results?

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