The Annotated Gödel: A Reader's Guide to his Classic Paper on Logic and Incompleteness

A detailed, competent and careful explanation of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem has long been needed, and now it is here. I'm a published mathematician who had read Gödel's paper before, and can attest that Hal knows his stuff. Reading Hal's version is a lot easier than reading the raw translations. The reader who works their way through this book will have an extremely thorough and nuanced knowledge of a theorem which is on anyone's short list of the most important and influential of all time.Those familiar with what Charles Petzold did for Turing's major paper (https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-Through-Historic-Computability/dp/0470229055/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Petzold&qid=1677109455&sr=8-5 ) will see a similarity. Petzold wrote for general reader, albeit an extremely dogged one. But Gödel's work is a more complicated target. Hal assumes the reader already 1) has heard of G's Incompleteness Theorem and has a vague idea of what it is about; 2) knows introductory logic; and 3) is comfortable following a non-trivial mathematical proof. Hal eases the obstacles with his explanations, and eliminates some of them. He updates G's notation; translates not just the text but the variable names; walks the reader thru G's arguments, addressing obscurities; and fills in a lot of details G left to the reader to work out.Full disclosure: Hal and I were first year graduate students back in the 1970s, at Yale's Computer Science Department. When I saw his name on this book, I ordered it immediately, expecting it to be good. I was not disappointed.

This is more than a modern translation - the author's commentary and explanations are what makes thisbook a gem. And through this exposition we see the precision and brilliance of Gödel. I was also surprised byhow down-to-earth Gödel is in parts of the paper - since that view of Gödel is somewhat contrary tohis popular image. In terms of the substance of Gödel's incompleteness, there are much easier waysto prove and understand incompleteness (more broadly) than by reading the original paper - Turing's undecidabilityis much easier to understand and there are many rigorous expositions of it since it is widely taught in computer science - and some (Chaitin for example) claim thatTuring's undecidability and Gödel's incompleteness are equivalent. But if you have an interestin the original paper (for historical or cultural reasons, or to see if it contains more than what isgenerally talked about - it does) then this is THE book, and the only one I know of. Certainly, neither Nageland Newman, or GED do it.

I only have to thank Hal Prince for this fantastic work. It is just what I was looking for. The guide helps grasp all the minimal details while delving deep into the incredible insights such a classic Gödel's work provides.

lessons' "guide"

While this is for a very select audience, the work done for it is top-notch. If you have any inclination to know more about this, I recommend it.

This is a fantastic book explaining Godel's incompleteness proofs. You'll need to be comfortable with some abstract mathematics to make it all the way through the book, but the author does an impressive job of breaking down every part of Godel's paper. The author is technically adept and clearly knows his stuff. His commentary is insightful as well as useful. The amount of work that the author put into this book is enormous, and it shows. For $10 it is really a steal. I highly recommend the book!

I've literally waited for a book like this since I first stumbled on Russell's Paradox 55 years ago. Of the *many* essays I've read about Gödel and his theorems since then, this one is easily the best. My relevant background is an undergraduate minor in mathematics, including an undergraduate (philosophy) course in symbolic logic.

I haven't finished yet, but so far this is a fantastic book with great annotations and details about Godel's masterpiece.