The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity

The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity

by Amir D . Aczel (Author)

Synopsis

From the end of the nineteenth century until his death, one of history's greatest mathematicians languished in an asylum, driven mad by an almost Faustian thirst for universal knowledge. THE MYSTERY OF THE ALEPH tells the story of Georg Cantor (1845-1918), a Russian born German whose work on the 'continuum problem' would bring us closer than any mathemetician before him in helping us to comprehend the nature of infinity. A respected mathematician himself, Dr. Aczel follows Cantor's life and traces the roots of his enigmatic theories. From the Pythagoreans, the Greek cult of mathematics, to the mystical Jewish numerology found in the Kabbalah, THE MYSTERY OF THE ALEPH follows the search for an answer that may never truly be trusted.

$19.36

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 272
Edition: New
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Published: 01 Sep 2001

ISBN 10: 0743422996
ISBN 13: 9780743422994

Media Reviews
An engaging, pellucid explanation of the mathematical understanding of infinity, enlivened by a historical gloss on the age-old affinities between religious and secular conceptions of the infinite.
Author Bio
Amir D. Aczel, Ph.d, is the author of FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM, GOD'S EQUATION, EINSTEIN'S RELATIVITY AND THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE and several other books. His work has been translated into Turkish, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, Chinese and Spanish. An internationally known mathematician, he lives in Waltham Massachusetts.