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Gödel, Escher, Bach : an eternal golden braid / Douglas R. Hofstadter.

By: Language: English Publisher: New York : Basic Books, [1999]Edition: 20th anniversary edDescription: 23, vi-xxi, 777 p. ill. 23 cmContent type:
  • Text
ISBN:
  • 0465026567
  • 0394756827
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 510.1 23/swe
Other classification:
  • Ta:d
Holdings
Cover image Item type Current library Home library Collection Shelving location Call number Materials specified Vol info URL Copy number Status Notes Date due Barcode Item holds Item hold queue priority Course reserves
Book Biblioteket HKR Biblioteket 510 Hofstadter Available 11156000165852
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award

A metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll

"Every few decades an unknown author brings out a book of such depth, charity, range, wit, beauty, and originality that it is recognized at once as a major literary event. This is such a work." -- Scientific American

GEB is a unique insight into the nature of "I," self, soul, and consciousness, centered on a notion that its youthful author dubbed "strange loop," inspired by the twisty self-referential construction invented by logician Kurt Gödel, whereby a sentence asserts its own unprovability. The book's chapters alternate with Bach-like contrapuntal dialogues between whimsical characters (especially Achilles and the Tortoise), and each dialogue's intricate structure exemplifies the notion being discussed in it, thus creating indirect self-reference (a fact unsuspected by the characters). The book, filled with analogies, wordplay, humor, and mind-twisting prints by M. C. Escher, has inspired generations of bright students to study cognitive science and the philosophy of mind.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 746-756) and index

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Preface to GEB's Twentieth-anniversary Edition(P-1)
  • Overview(p. viii)
  • List of Illustrations(p. xiv)
  • Words of Thanks(p. xix)
  • Part I GEB
  • Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering(p. 3)
  • Three-Part Invention(p. 29)
  • Chapter I The MU-puzzle(p. 33)
  • Two-Part Invention(p. 43)
  • Chapter II Meaning and Form in Mathematics(p. 46)
  • Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles(p. 61)
  • Chapter III Figure and Ground(p. 64)
  • Contracrostipunctus(p. 75)
  • Chapter IV Consistency, Completeness, and Geometry(p. 82)
  • Little Harmonic Labyrinth(p. 103)
  • Chapter V Recursive Structures and Processes(p. 127)
  • Canon by Intervallic Augmentation(p. 153)
  • Chapter VI The Location of Meaning(p. 158)
  • Chromatic Fantasy, And Feud(p. 177)
  • Chapter VII The Propositional Calculus(p. 181)
  • Crab Canon(p. 199)
  • Chapter VIII Typographical Number Theory(p. 204)
  • A Mu Offering(p. 231)
  • Chapter IX Mumon and Godel(p. 246)
  • Part II EGB(p. 275)
  • Prelude ...(p. 285)
  • Chapter X Levels of Description, and Computer Systems(p. 285)
  • ... Ant Fugue(p. 311)
  • Chapter XI Brains and Thoughts(p. 337)
  • English French German Suite(p. 366)
  • Chapter XII Minds and Thoughts(p. 369)
  • Aria with Diverse Variations(p. 391)
  • Chapter XIII BlooP and FlooP and GlooP(p. 406)
  • Air on G's String(p. 431)
  • Chapter XIV On Formally Undecidable Propositions of TNT and Related Systems(p. 438)
  • Birthday Cantatatata ...(p. 461)
  • Chapter XV Jumping out of the System(p. 465)
  • Edifying Thoughts of a Tobacco Smoker(p. 480)
  • Chapter XVI Self-Ref and Self-Rep(p. 495)
  • The Magnificrab, Indeed(p. 549)
  • Chapter XVII Church, Turing, Tarski, and Others(p. 559)
  • Shrdlu, Toy of Man's Designing(p. 586)
  • Chapter XVIII Artificial Intelligence: Retrospects(p. 594)
  • Contrafactus(p. 633)
  • Chapter XIX Artificial Intelligence: Prospects(p. 641)
  • Sloth Canon(p. 681)
  • Chapter XX Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies(p. 684)
  • Six-Part Ricercar(p. 720)
  • Notes(p. 743)
  • Bibliography(p. 746)
  • Credits(p. 757)
  • Index(p. 759)