What Eric Temple Bell calls "The Last Problem" is the problem of proving 'Fermat's Last Theorem', which Fermat wrote in the margin of a book almost 350 years ago. The original text of The Last Problem traced the problem from 2000 BC to 17th century France. Along the way we learn quite a bit about history, and just as much about mathematics. This book fits no categories. It is not a book of mathematics: it is a biography of a famous problem. Pages go by without an equation appearing. It is ...

Eric Temple Bell in 1924, published The Purple Sapphire, his first novel. Bell adopted the pseudonym of John Taine for all of his fictional work while continuing to write non-fiction under his own name. In the field of mathematics, Bell polynomials and Bell numbers of combinatorics are named in his honour and in 1924 he was awarded the Bocher Memorial Prize for his work in mathematical analysis.The Purple Sapphire, published in 1924, revolves around a mad scientistand an ex...

From one of the foremost interpreters for lay readers of the history and meaning of mathematics: a stimulating account of the origins of mathematical thought and the development of numerical theory. It probes the work of Pythagoras, Galileo, Berkeley, Einstein, and others, exploring how "number magic" has influenced religion, philosophy, science, and mathematics

"Science and the Modern World" by Alfred North Whitehead, originally published in 1925 redefines the concept of modern science. This book takes readers through the history of modern science and shows how cultural history has affected science over time in Romanticism, Quantum Theory, religion, and movements for social progress. Whitehead invites his audience to understand and read with celebration about the contemporary, historical, and cultural context of scientific discovery. “The most si...

Written by a Nobel Prize winner philosopher Bertrand Russell, 'Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays' was first published in the year 1910. This book consists articles based on how people perceive mysticism versus what it might actually be.

This book is a collection of the finest mystical writings of the great physicists of the 20th Century. They are Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, James Jeans, Arthur Eddington, Eugene Wigner, David Bohm, and Freeman Dyson. The essays are written in nontechnical language and will be of absorbing interest to a wide range of readers.The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion w...

In "The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress," George Santayana presents a comprehensive exploration of human thought and its evolution through various cultural epochs. Written in a rich, philosophical prose that weaves together insights from history, science, and ethics, Santayana examines the interplay between reason and the emotional underpinnings of human behavior. The work is divided into five volumes, each addressing different dimensions of human experience'—from the initial ...

The brilliant writings of a highly influential Greek philosopher, with a foreword by Daniel Klein, author of Travels with EpicurusThe teachings of Epicurus—about life and death, religion and science, physical sensation, happiness, morality, and friendship—attracted legions of adherents throughout the ancient Mediterranean world and deeply influenced later European thought. Though Epicurus faced hostile opposition for centuries after his death, he counts am...

Dr. Adler, in his discussion, extends and modernizes the argument for the existence of God developed by Aristotle and Aquinas. Without relying on faith, mysticism, or science (none of which, according to Dr. Adler, can prove or disprove the existence of God), he uses a rationalist argument to lead the reader to a point where he or she can see that the existence of God is not necessarily dependent upon a suspension of disbelief. Dr. Adler provides a nondogmatic exposition of the principles ...

A wonderfully enlightening work on the affinities between angels and human beings.Mortimer Adler has always been ahead of his time. In 1982, before the current revival of interest in angels, Dr. Adler published "The Angels and Us," an engaging look at the various images and hierarchies of angels (including guardian angels). Dr. Adler, the bestselling author of "Ten Philosophical Mistakes," "Aristotle for Everybody," and "The Great Ideas," speculates on the existenc...

Three essays on mathematics, logic, and philosophy from the Noble Prize–winning author of A History of Western Philosophy.The essays in this little volume, published here for the first time in book form, were written by Bertrand Russell during the Second World War when he was less concerned with the stormy issues of nuclear warfare and the containment of Communist aggression and more with "the art of reckoning" in the fields of mathematics, logic and philos...

A good portrait of Locke would require an elaborate background. His is not a figure to stand statuesquely in a void: the pose might not seem grand enough for bronze or marble. Rather he should be painted in the manner of the Dutch masters, in a sunny interior, scrupulously furnished with all the implements of domestic comfort and philosophic enquiry: the Holy Bible open majestically before him, and beside it that other revelation - the terrestrial globe. His hand might be pointing to a mic...