Harmonies of disorder. Norbert Wiener: a mathematician-philosopher of our time

DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50657-9MaRDI QIDQ2360281zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Leone Montagnini

Publication date 30 June 2017

Published in Springer Biographies (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50657-9

zbMATH Keywords

cyberneticsmathematical philosophy

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Philosophy of mathematics (00A30) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to history and biography (01-02) History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) Biographies, obituaries, personalia, bibliographies (01A70) History of mathematical logic and foundations (03-03) Logic in the philosophy of science (03A10)

Review text

Norbert Wiener is known for his work on cybernetics; a word he coined in 1948 in his work [Cybernetics or control and communication in the animal and the machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (1948)]. In this book, Wiener's life is presented in four chronologically ordered parts: Part 1 is concerned with the years 1894--1918, Part 2 with 1919--1939, Part 3 with 1940--1945, and Part 4 with the time period from 1946 until Wiener's death in 1964. The author concentrates on Wiener's philosophical development, his works on the principles of computing (and computers), and on cybernetics. The whole book is very readable and gives important insights into the intellectual development of an outstanding thinker. Many links are discussed with respect to philosophy, social sciences, and physics and many well-known characters of the computer age like von Neumann and Wiener's contacts with them are discussed. The book comprises an important step in understanding Wiener's thinking. However, the purely mathematical achievements of Wiener fall a bit short.

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Cited in

(13)

• The mathematical art of Norbert Wiener
• W for Wiener. Consistency is no longer a virtue
• A \textit{Baedeker} for our challenging and troubled times. A preface to Leone Montagnini's \textit{Harmonies of disorder}
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1703336 (Why is no real title available?)
• Recollections of Norbert Wiener, Warren McCulloch and Stafford Beer
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1107580 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2146472 (Why is no real title available?)
• NORBERT WIENER: A TEORIA CIBERNÉTICA DE UM MATEMÁTICO
• The man from the future. The visionary life of John von Neumann
• Norbert Wiener. A life in cybernetics. Ex-prodigy: my childhood and youth and I am a mathematician: the later life of a prodigy. With a foreword by Ronald R. Kline
• Sociology, science, and the end of philosophy. How society shapes brains, gods, maths, and logics
• The harmonies of disorder. Norbert Wiener, twentieth-century mathematician and philosopher
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 958200 (Why is no real title available?)

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