Alan Turing's Systems of Logic

The Princeton Thesis

Andrew W. Appel

$54.99

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Princeton University Pres
27 May 2012

Mathematics & Sciences; Mathematical logic; History of mathematics; Computer science

"Between inventing the concept of a universal computer in 1936 and breaking the German Enigma code during World War II, Alan Turing (1912-1954), the British founder of computer science and artificial intelligence, came to Princeton University to study mathematical logic. Some of the greatest logicians in the world--including Alonzo Church, Kurt Godel, John von Neumann, and Stephen Kleene--were at Princeton in the 1930s, and they were working on ideas that would lay the groundwork for what would become known as computer science. This book presents a facsimile of the original typescript of Turing's fascinating and influential 1938 Princeton PhD thesis, one of the key documents in the history of mathematics and computer science. The book also features essays by Andrew Appel and Solomon Feferman that explain the still-unfolding significance of the ideas Turing developed at Princeton. A work of philosophy as well as mathematics, Turing's thesis envisions a practical goal--a logical system to formalize mathematical proofs so they can be checked mechanically. If every step of a theorem could be verified mechanically, the burden on intuition would be limited to the axioms.

Turing's point, as Appel writes, is that ""mathematical reasoning can be done, and should be done, in mechanizable formal logic."" Turing's vision of ""constructive systems of logic for practical use"" has become reality: in the twenty-first century, automated ""formal methods"" are now routine. Presented here in its original form, this fascinating thesis is one of the key documents in the history of mathematics and computer science."

Edited by: Andrew W. Appel
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 254mm, Width: 178mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 510g
ISBN: 9780691155746
ISBN 10: 0691155747
Pages: 160
Publication Date: 27 May 2012
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General/trade , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface ix The Birth of Computer Science at Princeton in the 1930s Andrew W. Appel 1 Turing's Thesis Solomon Feferman 13 Notes on the Manuscript 27 Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals Alan Turing 31 A Remarkable Bibliography 141 Contributors 143

Andrew W. Appel is the Eugene Higgins Professor and Chairman of the Department of Computer Science at Princeton University.

Reviews for Alan Turing's Systems of Logic: The Princeton Thesis

This book is not for the faint hearted, as with the great masters of painting it will insist that some thought goes into appreciating it. . . . I love the book as a book. It is a collectors item and after all what better pursuit can one have than collecting books! --Patrick Fogarty, Mathematics Today This book presents the story of Turing's work at Princeton University and includes a facsimile of his doctoral dissertation, 'Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals,' which he completed in 1936. The author includes a detailed history of Turing's work in computer science and the attempts to ground the field in formal logic. --Mathematics Teacher