Product Description

Philosophy is one of the most intimidating and difficult of disciplines, as any of its students can attest. This book is an important entry in a distinctive new series from Routledge: The Great Philosophers. Breaking down obstacles to understanding the ideas of history's greatest thinkers, these brief, accessible, and affordable volumes offer essential introductions to the great philosophers of the Western tradition from Plato to Wittgenstein. In just 64 pages, each author, a specialist on his subject, places the philosopher and his ideas into historical perspective. Each volume explains, in simple terms, the basic concepts, enriching the narrative through the effective use of biographical detail. And instead of attempting to explain the philosopher's entire intellectual history, which can be daunting, this series takes one central theme in each philosopher's work, using it to unfold the philosopher's thoughts.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1496356 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

From Library Journal
Once in a while, a publication comes along that on first sight seems oddly out of place but on second viewing is admirably suited to its purpose. This little series of biographical summaries of the thoughts of 24 Western philosophers from Democritus to Derrida is admirable not only for its reasonable price but even more for the intelligence and clarity of the writing. Each volume has been prepared by an expert in the subject, and the result is a series of well-drawn and exceptionally useful pocket-size (4.5 x 7 inches) sketches of major figures in the history of Western thought. The level is such that no special background in philosophy is required to understand the concepts discussed. Each volume also contains a short bibliography, some of which refer to electronic journals or web sites. Most of the individuals chosen for the series come as no surprise, e.g., Descartes, Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, Locke, Hume, Plato, and Socrates. But there are a few unexpected choices, like Alan Turing and Karl PopperAalthough on further consideration, they make more sense. Turing's influence on mathematics and on the development of computers has long been recognized, but his 1936 paper "On Compatible Numbers," which appeared in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society in 1936-37, influenced studies in the philosophy of mind. Popper's development of the concept of "historicism" in such works as The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism significantly influenced 20th-century political thought. Ultimately, this set should be in every academic and public library as well as many school libraries.ATerry C. Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Turing: A concise but sophisticated biography
This is a superb, yet brief overview of Turing, his life and his math. Although this is a sophisticated approach to the man and his work, the writing is readily accessible by a lay person, like myself. One can get a clear flavor of the importance of his work and how his Turing machine model is not just the framework for Bill Gate's wealth but also as a profound extention of the Undecidable problem first addressed by Godel.

Short, Sassy, and to the Point
Look, sometimes you just don't want to spend days or weeks of your life getting to know some famous personage in intellectual history. At heart, you're lazy, and you're somewhat cheap too. So what better way to get a brief overview of Alan Turing than by Andrew Hodges' cheap and concise book on said? Well, I couldn't think of any, so I picked this up 53 page gem on a whim. It's a historical overview of Turing's career with balanced attention to his thought. With the exception of about 8 pages that only will profit those who have had some experience with what's called the "Halting Problem" in symbolic logic, this is a very readable book. What is a Turing Machine and why are they important to the modern notion of computers? Why is Turing considered the inventor of computational theory, even if not the outright inventor of the computer? (And this last claim is somewhat debatable, as the book points out.) What was Turing doing for the British Government during the war? Why did Turing get fired from his job? There are all sorts of little tidbits of information here, even about his sex life. Ho ho! Also in the book is some discussion of whether a computer can be made to think. Naturally, some of Turing's more interesting comments are quoted on this topic, and Hodges gives attention to the more recent ideas of Roger Penrose, a philosopher whose ideas on artificial consciousness have been influential on the contemporary scene. Okay, you got the time to read 53 pages, and for not more money than a good McDonald's meal, you could be reading it in a day or so if you'll just click the...ordering button...

How natural philosophy helped invent the computer...
To fully answer the question whether machines can think seems to presuppose the question "what is thinking?" In other words, how will we know when a machine thinks? Will it tell us? Will it compose sonnets? The eponymous "Turing test" attempts to unravel this paradox. To greatly simplify, the test states that if a human interpreter, alone in a room, cannot distinguish answers given by a machine, in a separate obscured room, from answers given by a human being, in a third obscured room, then the machine must have human-like intelligence. Alan Turing, often credited with the invention of the now ubiquitous computer, proposed these criteria in a 1950 paper called "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." He was not trying to invent a computer, even when he provided an unmistakable model for one, the "Turing Machine," in a 1936 paper. Instead, he sought to model the computable aspects of the human mind. The mathematician Hilbert's work gave rise to the "Entscheidungsproblem," or the problem of "decidability." Answering this problem, as the young Turing did, also led to his conceptual blueprint of what we now know as a computer. Nonetheless, the human mind remained Turing's focus, and that's why he's represented in "The Great Philosophers" series. Arguably, his predominant question was "what is thinking?" or, at least, "how does the mind compute?" His answers had far-reaching implications for the philosophy of mind, amongst other disparate fields. Early twentieth century mathematical logic, then seen as "the quest for truth" by eminent philosophers such as Bertrand Russell, was Turing's starting point.

This book's author, Andrew Hodges, also wrote an earlier, much longer, biography called "Alan Turing: The Enigma." Hodges uses this diminutive book to update some of the thoughts presented in that earlier 1983 biography. This 1999 book, a follow-up of sorts, traces Turing's thought from early adulthood to his sad and tragic suicide in 1954. Though some 58 pages long, it feels comprehensive. Apart from "The Turing Machine," "The Universal Machine," "The Turing Test," and his early development, the breezy text covers Turing's travails with homosexuality, his cryptographic feats during World War II, his conception of a discrete state machine, his thoughts on ESP, his brief but somewhat uneventful run-in with Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1937, and reactions to his work by Roger Penrose, a skeptic concerning "mechanical intelligence." Throughout, Hodges refers to Turing as a "natural philosopher" in that he ignored many of the demarcations that still silo academia, such as the distinction between "pure" and "applied" mathematics. Though this attitude led to some of his greatest intellectual feats, it also made him somewhat cryptic to academia. To this day, Turing's work defies solid categorization. Nonetheless, his influence on modern life remains indisputable, though many consider, controversially, von Neumann the "real" inventor of the computer (his EDVAC predates Turing's ACE by one year). In any case, anyone searching for a good overview of Turing's thought and influence will find it here. And although the text sometimes becomes very technical, it thankfully never becomes inaccessible.

Alan Turing met a sad end, as described in this book's final pages. Blackmailed and arrested for then illegal homosexual activity, he took "nature altering" drugs rather than face prison. Thereafter barred from a normal life, he ate an apple laced with cyanide in 1954. The sardonic syllogism he wrote, included in the book, provides a tragic but apt summary for Turing's later life. More than fifty years later, his ideas and influence continue to spread as computers dominate the everyday lives of millions. Artificial Intelligence also considers him a forbearer. This small book exposes not only why Turing was a great philosopher in classic and modern senses, but how he indubitably shaped today's world and culture.