The bestselling book that has helped millions of readers solve any problem

A must-have guide by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It shows anyone in any field how to think straight. In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can help you attack any problem that can be reasoned out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. How to Solve It includes a heuristic dictionary with dozens of entries on how to make problems more manageable--from analogy and induction to the heuristic method of starting with a goal and working backward to something you already know.

This disarmingly elementary book explains how to harness curiosity in the classroom, bring the inventive faculties of students into play, and experience the triumph of discovery. But it's not just for the classroom. Generations of readers from all walks of life have relished Polya's brilliantly deft instructions on stripping away irrelevancies and going straight to the heart of a problem.

Proofs play a central role in advanced mathematics and theoretical computer science, yet many students struggle the first time they take a course in which proofs play a significant role. This bestselling text's third edition helps students transition from solving problems to proving theorems by teaching them the techniques needed to read and write proofs. Featuring over 150 new exercises and a new chapter on number theory, this new edition introduces students to the world of advanced mathematics through the mastery of proofs. The book begins with the basic concepts of logic and set theory to familiarize students with the language of mathematics and how it is interpreted. These concepts are used as the basis for an analysis of techniques that can be used to build up complex proofs step by step, using detailed 'scratch work' sections to expose the machinery of proofs about numbers, sets, relations, and functions. Assuming no background beyond standard high school mathematics, this book will be useful to anyone interested in logic and proofs: computer scientists, philosophers, linguists, and, of course, mathematicians.

Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and the reality of time to paradoxes of probability and decision theory. Along the way, the basics of formal logic are explained in simple, non-technical terms, showing that logic is a powerful and exciting part of modern philosophy.

In this new edition Graham Priest expands his discussion to cover the subjects of algorithms and axioms, and proofs in mathematics.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

How both logical and emotional reasoning can help us live better in our post-truth world

In a world where fake news stories change election outcomes, has rationality become futile? In The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, Eugenia Cheng throws a lifeline to readers drowning in the illogic of contemporary life. Cheng is a mathematician, so she knows how to make an airtight argument. But even for her, logic sometimes falls prey to emotion, which is why she still fears flying and eats more cookies than she should. If a mathematician can't be logical, what are we to do? In this book, Cheng reveals the inner workings and limitations of logic, and explains why alogic -- for example, emotion -- is vital to how we think and communicate. Cheng shows us how to use logic and alogic together to navigate a world awash in bigotry, mansplaining, and manipulative memes. Insightful, useful, and funny, this essential book is for anyone who wants to think more clearly.

An accessible explanation of Kurt Gödel's groundbreaking work in mathematical logic

In 1931 Kurt Gödel published his fundamental paper, On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems. This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Gödel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences--perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times.

However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar's complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Gödel's discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject.

New York University Press is proud to publish this special edition of one of its bestselling books. With a new introduction by Douglas R. Hofstadter, this book will appeal students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.

The book is extremely pleasant to read, with masterfully crafted exercises and examples that create a beautiful and unique thread of presentation leading the reader safely into the wonderfully rich, expressive, and powerful theory of categories. -- The Math Association
Category theory has provided the foundations for many of the twentieth century's greatest advances in pure mathematics. This concise, original text for a one-semester course on the subject is derived from courses that author Emily Riehl taught at Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities. The treatment introduces the essential concepts of category theory: categories, functors, natural transformations, the Yoneda lemma, limits and colimits, adjunctions, monads, and other topics.
Suitable for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics, the text provides tools for understanding and attacking difficult problems in algebra, number theory, algebraic geometry, and algebraic topology. Drawing upon a broad range of mathematical examples from the categorical perspective, the author illustrates how the concepts and constructions of category theory arise from and illuminate more basic mathematical ideas. Prerequisites are limited to familiarity with some basic set theory and logic.

Playing logic puzzle on a daily basis helps to keep an active mind and players often see improvements in their overall concentration.

This Logic Puzzles book is packed with the following features:

- 500 Hard Adults Puzzles (Sudoku, Kakuro, Hitori, Minesweeper, Masyu, Suguru, Binary Puzzle, Slitherlink, Futoshiki, Fillomino).

- Answers to every puzzle are provided.

- Each puzzle is guaranteed to have only one solution.

- Includes free bonus puzzles you can download book (Tons of Sudoku Puzzles for Adults & Seniors)

- Includes free bonus puzzles you can download book (Word Search With Hidden Message: 102 Puzzles for Adults and Seniors)

This Easy Logic Puzzles book is packed with the following features:

- 48 Sudoku Puzzles, 36 Fillomino Puzzles, 48 Kakuro Puzzles, 32 Futoshiki Puzzles, 48 Hitori Puzzles, 36 Slitherlink Puzzles, 48 Killer Sudoku Puzzles, 40 Calcudoku Puzzles, 48 Jigsaw Sudoku Puzzles, 36 Skyscrapers Puzzles, 48 Shikaku Puzzles and 32 Numbrix Puzzles.

- Answers to every puzzle are provided.

- Each puzzle is guaranteed to have only one solution.

• Includes free bonus puzzles you can download book (Tons of Sudoku Puzzles for Adults & Seniors)
• Includes free bonus puzzles you can download book (Word Search With Hidden Message: 102 Puzzles for Adults and Seniors)

In mathematics, it simply is not true that 'you can't prove a negative'. Many revolutionary impossibility theorems reveal profound properties of logic, computation, fairness and the universe, and form the mathematical background of new technologies and Nobel prizes. But to fully appreciate these theorems and their impact on mathematics and beyond, you must understand their proofs. This book is the first to present these proofs for a broad, lay audience. It fully develops the simplest rigorous proofs found in the literature, reworked to contain less jargon and notation, and more background, intuition, examples, explanations, and exercises. Amazingly, all of the proofs in this book involve only arithmetic and basic logic - and are elementary, starting only from first principles and definitions. Very little background knowledge is required, and no specialized mathematical training - all you need is the discipline to follow logical arguments and a pen in your hand.

In the words of Bertrand Russell, Because language is misleading, as well as because it is diffuse and inexact when applied to logic (for which it was never intended), logical symbolism is absolutely necessary to any exact or thorough treatment of mathematical philosophy. That assertion underlies this book, a seminal work in the field for more than 70 years. In it, Russell offers a nontechnical, undogmatic account of his philosophical criticism as it relates to arithmetic and logic. Rather than an exhaustive treatment, however, the influential philosopher and mathematician focuses on certain issues of mathematical logic that, to his mind, invalidated much traditional and contemporary philosophy.
In dealing with such topics as number, order, relations, limits and continuity, propositional functions, descriptions, and classes, Russell writes in a clear, accessible manner, requiring neither a knowledge of mathematics nor an aptitude for mathematical symbolism. The result is a thought-provoking excursion into the fascinating realm where mathematics and philosophy meet -- a philosophical classic that will be welcomed by any thinking person interested in this crucial area of modern thought.

This well-organized book was designed to introduce students to a way of thinking that encourages precision and accuracy. As the text for a course in modern logic, it familiarizes readers with a complete theory of logical inference and its specific applications to mathematics and the empirical sciences.
Part I deals with formal principles of inference and definition, including a detailed attempt to relate the formal theory of inference to the standard informal proofs common throughout mathematics. An in-depth exploration of elementary intuitive set theory constitutes Part II, with separate chapters on sets, relations, and functions. The final section deals with the set-theoretical foundations of the axiomatic method and contains, in both the discussion and exercises, numerous examples of axiomatically formulated theories. Topics range from the theory of groups and the algebra of the real numbers to elementary probability theory, classical particle mechanics, and the theory of measurement of sensation intensities.
Ideally suited for undergraduate courses, this text requires no background in mathematics or philosophy.

The theory of definable equivalence relations has been a vibrant area of research in descriptive set theory for the past three decades. It serves as a foundation of a theory of complexity of classification problems in mathematics and is further motivated by the study of group actions in a descriptive, topological, or measure-theoretic context. A key part of this theory is concerned with the structure of countable Borel equivalence relations. These are exactly the equivalence relations generated by Borel actions of countable discrete groups and this introduces important connections with group theory, dynamical systems, and operator algebras. This text surveys the state of the art in the theory of countable Borel equivalence relations and delineates its future directions and challenges. It gives beginning graduate students and researchers a bird's-eye view of the subject, with detailed references to the extensive literature provided for further study.

bVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring /b

Kurt Gödel first published his celebrated theorem, showing that no axiomatization can determine the whole truth and nothing but the truth concerning arithmetic, nearly a century ago. The theorem challenged prevalent presuppositions about the nature of mathematics and was consequently of considerable mathematical interest, while also raising various deep philosophical questions. Gödel's Theorem has since established itself as a landmark intellectual achievement, having a profound impact on today's mathematical ideas. Gödel and his theorem have attracted something of a cult following, though his theorem is often misunderstood.

This Very Short Introduction places the theorem in its intellectual and historical context, and explains the key concepts as well as common misunderstandings of what it actually states. A. W. Moore provides a clear statement of the theorem, presenting two proofs, each of which has something distinctive to teach about its content. Moore also discusses the most important philosophical implications of the theorem. In particular, Moore addresses the famous question of whether the theorem shows the human mind to have mathematical powers beyond those of any possible computer

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

This completely self-contained study, widely considered the best book in the field, is intended to serve both as an introduction to quantification theory and as an exposition of new results and techniques in analytic or cut-free methods. Impressed by the simplicity and mathematical elegance of the tableau point of view, the author focuses on it here.
After preliminary material on tress (necessary for the tableau method), Part I deals with propositional logic from the viewpoint of analytic tableaux, covering such topics as formulas or propositional logic, Boolean valuations and truth sets, the method of tableaux and compactness.
Part II covers first-order logic, offering detailed treatment of such matters as first-order analytic tableaux, analytic consistency, quantification theory, magic sets, and analytic versus synthetic consistency properties.
Part III continues coverage of first-order logic. Among the topics discussed are Gentzen systems, elimination theorems, prenex tableaux, symmetric completeness theorems, and system linear reasoning.
Raymond M. Smullyan is a well-known logician and inventor of mathematical and logical puzzles. In this book he has written a stimulating and challenging exposition of first-order logic that will be welcomed by logicians, mathematicians, and anyone interested in the field.

Godel's Proof was first published in the US in 1958. In 1931 there appeared in a German scientific periodical a relatively short paper with the forbidding title On Formally Undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems. Its author was Kurt Godel, then a young mathematician of 25 at the University of Vienna who since 1938 was a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. The paper is a milestone in the history of logic and mathematics. When Harvard University awarded Godel an honorary degree, the citation described the work as one of the most important advances in logic in modern times. At the time of its appearance, however, neither the title of Godel's paper nor its content was intelligible to most mathematicians.

Offering a unique resource for advanced graduate students and researchers, this book treats the fundamentals of Quillen model structures on abelian and exact categories. Building the subject from the ground up using cotorsion pairs, it develops the special properties enjoyed by the homotopy category of such abelian model structures. A central result is that the homotopy category of any abelian model structure is triangulated and characterized by a suitable universal property - it is the triangulated localization with respect to the class of trivial objects. The book also treats derived functors and monoidal model categories from this perspective, showing how to construct tensor triangulated categories from cotorsion pairs. For researchers and graduate students in algebra, topology, representation theory, and category theory, this book offers clear explanations of difficult model category methods that are increasingly being used in contemporary research.

Examination of essential topics and theorems assumes no background in logic. Undoubtedly a major addition to the literature of mathematical logic. - Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society. 1978 edition.