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  • Full bibliographic data for Naming Infinity

    Title
    Naming Infinity
    Subtitle
    A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity
    Authors and contributors
    By (author) Loren Graham, By (author) Jean-Michel Kantor
    Physical properties
    Format: Hardback
    Number of pages: 256
    Width: 140 mm
    Height: 210 mm
    Thickness: 28 mm
    Weight: 431 g
    Audience
    General/trade
    Language
    English
    ISBN
    ISBN 13: 9780674032934
    ISBN 10: 0674032934
    Classifications
    BISAC category code: REL106000
    BICMainSubject: PBX
    Dewey: 510.9470904
    Nielsen BookScan Product Class: T6.0
    BIC subject category: HRLK2
    BISAC category code: MAT015000
    BISAC category code: MAT028000
    BISAC category code: HIS013000
    BISAC category code: HIS032000
    BISAC category code: REL049000
    Edition
    1
    Illustrations note
    34 halftones, 3 line illustrations
    Publisher
    HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
    Imprint name
    The Belknap Press
    Publication date
    31 March 2009
    Publication City/Country
    Cambridge, Mass./US
    Main description
    In 1913, Russian imperial marines stormed an Orthodox monastery at Mt. Athos, Greece, to haul off monks engaged in a dangerously heretical practice known as Name Worshipping. Exiled to remote Russian outposts, the monks and their mystical movement went underground. Ultimately, they came across Russian intellectuals who embraced Name Worshipping—and who would achieve one of the biggest mathematical breakthroughs of the twentieth century, going beyond recent French achievements. Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor take us on an exciting mathematical mystery tour as they unravel a bizarre tale of political struggles, psychological crises, sexual complexities, and ethical dilemmas. At the core of this book is the contest between French and Russian mathematicians who sought new answers to one of the oldest puzzles in math: the nature of infinity. The French school chased rationalist solutions. The Russian mathematicians, notably Dmitri Egorov and Nikolai Luzin—who founded the famous Moscow School of Mathematics—were inspired by mystical insights attained during Name Worshipping. Their religious practice appears to have opened to them visions into the infinite—and led to the founding of descriptive set theory. The men and women of the leading French and Russian mathematical schools are central characters in this absorbing tale that could not be told until now. Naming Infinity is a poignant human interest story that raises provocative questions about science and religion, intuition and ­creativity.
    Biographical note
    Loren Graham is Professor of the History of Science, emeritus, at MIT. Jean-Michel Kantor is a mathematician at the Institut de Mathematiques de Jussieu in Paris.
    Review quote
    "The intellectual drama will attract readers who are interested in mystical religion and the foundations of mathematics. The personal drama will attract readers who are interested in a human tragedy with characters who met their fates with exceptional courage." - Freeman Dyson"