Godel Meets Einstein : Time Travel in the Godel Universe

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing but a hard read
Review: Although ostensibly this book is about Godel's solutions to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and his consequent view of time, it is in fact broader than that. This could be instead considered a book on the philosophy of time with consideration of the GTR and using Godel's views on time and the GTR as a common thread.

As such, it is a difficult read. It will require of someone a fairly strong comprehension of philosophy and metaphysics, as well as (at least) a conceptual grasp of GTR, formal logic and Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, and some understanding of Cantor's transfinite numbers.

The philosophical references run from Plato and Aristotle to Kant and McTaggart. It is wide-ranging in it's coverage of differing views and how they relate to Godel's own views on time. Topics such as "The Epistemology of Potential Infinity" and "Frege and the Decontextualization of Thought" are representative of the depth of this book. Discussions of potential vs. actual infinities, truth in relation to time, the ontology of space-time diagrams, and so on, can leave one reeling.

In addition, comparisons between Godel's Incompleteness Theorem and his approach to his solutions to GTR are made, in hopes of elucidating Godel's ingenuity in finding unexpected solutions to various formalisms.

So, this book really attempts to go far beyond it's title. I think it generally succeeds, however, I find some of the organization of the book annoying, and I wish it were layed out differently. (However, in fairness, if it were my task I have no idea how I would go about reorganizing such complex material - it just seems that it could be done). The book is very heavily referenced (sometimes excessively it seems), and practically every page has at least two or three quotes. I think this tends to make the overall flow of writing less than natural, but it is a matter of style.

Finally, the appendix on Zeno's paradoxes is, to me, very well done and worth half the price of the book right there. Yourgrau clarifies in particular the issue of limits vs infinite sums, and all-in-all provides compelling reasons for claiming that Zeno's paradoxes remain unsolved despite some claims to the contrary.

Rating:
Summary: Underground classic?
Review: This absolutely riveting book delivers at two levels: first, it can serve for any intelligent reader as an exhilirating introduction to most of the central questions of philosophy--questions concerning time, truth, death, thought, free will, and infinity, to mention just some of the ground covered. Second (and this is what makes it such an astonishing book) it offers, in the context of its luminously clear and helpful discussions of these issues, a series of original and profound philosophical results. Many of these insights in effect open a new chapter in the domains they deal with (see, for example, Yourgrau's powerfully argued rejection of the standard way of understanding both existence (represented in logic these days by the 'existential quantifer') and infinity (esp., the sum of an infinite convergent series). In reading the book you are given a front row seat onto all of this--some of the newest, most surprising, and most fundamental work in philosophy. Those coming to the book from physics (i.e. the 'Einstein' end of things) will, I suspect, be refreshed by the idea of a harmonious and fruitful relationship between philosophy and science that infuses the book (after all, Einstein and Godel talked philosophy AND physics). In short, an extraordinary book not to be missed.

Rating:
Summary: challenging but rewarding
Review: This is a difficult philosophy book, but there are a number of interesting ideas worth thinking about for those who are interested in the philosophy of time, specifically in what physics seems to tell us about the nature of time. This book is actually an expanded edition of Yourgrau's (1991) book, The Disappearance of Time. I think it's a bit disingenuous to issue what is pretty much the same book under a new title. Godel Meets Einstein has one new chapter (definitely worth reading) and two new appendicies.