"All Cretans are liars", said Epimenides, a Cretan. But this means that his statement must be a lie too. But then it is false that Cretans are liars and the statement must be true. So what now?

Last week I explained how a then 25-year-old logician, Kurt Gödel, overturned a basic assumption of many mathematicians in the early 20th century. Even as experts were building a seemingly firm ...

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - APRIL 19: A detailed view of the blackboard with theoretical physics equations in chalk by Alberto Ramos, Theoretical Physics Fellow and visitor, Antonio Gonzalez-Arroyo from the ...

The genius logician Kurt Gödel gave his name to his famous Incompleteness Theorems, which in the 1930s helped define the limits of both logic and mathematics. It might be thought that the ...

My friends and colleagues often ask me to help with number-related questions. After all, I know a lot about math. Ironically, I'm actually quite bad at mental arithmetic. What many people don't ...

In 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel pulled off arguably one of the most stunning intellectual achievements in history. Mathematicians of the era sought a solid foundation for mathematics: a set ...

The recent events surrounding Donald Trump’s first few weeks in the White House have left many wondering how a political outsider can become president of the United States. Does Trump’s rapid rise to ...

In “Journey to the Edge of Reason,” Stephen Budiansky’s wonderfully engrossing new biography of the Austrian-born logician Kurt Gödel, some light is shed on a famous story. Gödel is legendary for ...

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. In 1947, having left Nazi-occupied Vienna for the quaint idyll of Princeton, N.J., seven years ...