Customer Reviews
Nagel and Newman - By: R. H. Barton, 16 Jul 2008 
This book by Nagel & Newman is a great classic, clever & suited to the intellectuallly curious who have not the patience (or talent) for the full syntax of mathematical logic.
Aside: It is a little misleading that Amazon, in their header, say "By Douglas R.Hofstadter, ..." as he wrote the preface only to this much later reprinted edition.
The best introduction for the most revolutionary proof in Logic. - By: Antonios F. Arkas, 13 Sep 2007 "Gödel's Proof" is a classic. Despite of being brief it doesn't sacrifice punctuality for length. There are no superfluous paragraphs in this book which leads the leader with steady but not lengthy steps to the understanding of the greatest leap taken in the field of Mathematical Logic. The text is not written in a technical style & even the few mathematical proofs found at the last chapters are indispensable for understanding the heard of Gödel's Proof.
Don't be confused from the mathematical title of this book & think that this book is written only for mathematicians. On the contrary I believe that the importance of this proof reaches every natural science because the language used from the majority of the these sciences is mathematics & therefore the characteristics of the language used to describe natural processes affects the epistemological foundations of the aforementioned natural sciences.
This unique textbook has also a lot to do with cognitive science & the way we think as human beings while trying to understand our natural environment. For this reason I consider "Gödel's Proof" as a wonderful book of cognitive science too. I truly recommend this book to anyone who want to take a deep dive in the big blue of what mathematics are & their connection with empirical reality. It is the best book to get a good feeling about Mathematical Logic & reasoning.
Outstanding introductory text - By: , 24 Nov 2004 For those interested, but uninitiated, in the philosophy of mathematics or mathematical philosophy should seriously consider reading this excellent introductory text. In a highly concise & lucid manner, the authors successfully explain the origins, development & details of Godel's proof & examine some of the wider implication of it.
It is not, however, particularly easy reading. Unlike reading a novel, it requires some effort to fully understand & grapple with the strange but intriguing concepts discussed. No background or logic necessary; technicalities are generallly avoided.
All in alll, outstanding. Well worth buying.
An excellent guide to Gödel - By: , 27 Jun 1999 Simply magnificent. This book meets & exceeds the description on its back cover -- offering "any educated person with a taste for logic & philosophy the chance to satisfy his intellectual curiosity about a previously inaccessible subject." This book gives anyone with the interest & the motivation a solid, if not complete, understanding of the ideas underlying the proof. While it's true that someone very unfamiliar with mathematics (or, more importantly, with logic & mathematical thinking) would not get as much out of the book, it does a very good job of walking the reader through Gödel's complex but breathtakingly elegant reasoning. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
A Very Good Introduction - By: , 16 Jun 1999 
I Read this book in an afternoon. While this book covers many of Godels ideas, concepts, & systematicallly works throught the incompleteness theory, it does however lack the fine detail of the actual theorem. I recomend this book for those who wish to find out aout Godels Proof, without wanting the know the fine details.
