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RC Series Bundle: Godel's Proof (Routledge Classics)

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Gödel's incompleteness theorem remains one of the most quoted, yet most misunderstood work in mathematics of the last century. Many non mathematicians had used the theorem (without understanding it, of course), to "prove" just about everything (generally it's been used to imply the limits of science, or stuff to that effect). The theorem, though, hardly implies that. This short book, written some 50 years ago, remains probably the best explanation of Godel's work available to the layman. The book starts explaining the background to Godel's theorem, as mathematicians such as Hilbert and Russell sought the axiomatization of mathematics. Godel's work, of course, proved that to be impossible. The book then proceeds to explain the theorem itself, as clearly as it possibly can (though I have to say that, as a non expert, the Gödel numbering scheme seems a like a trick to me, a sleight of hand. Yet, what do I know about this?). Overall, a great book about a much misunderstood work.