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Christos H. PapadimitriouChristos H. Papadimitriou
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Logicomix: An epic search for truth: An epic search for truth Paperback – Import, 23 October 2009
by C Doxiadis, A;Papadimitriou (Author), Alecos Papadatos (Illustrator)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (872)
An innovative, dramatic graphic novel based on the life of the philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell.
This brilliantly illustrated tale of reason, insanity, love and truth recounts the story of Bertrand Russell's life. Raised by his paternal grandparents, young Russell was never told the whereabouts of his parents. Driven by a desire for knowledge of his own history, he attempted to force the world to yield to his yearnings- for truth, clarity and resolve.
As he grew older, and increasingly sophisticated as a philosopher and mathematician, Russell strove to create an objective language with which to describe the world - one free of the biases and slippages of the written word. At the same time, he began courting his first wife, teasing her with riddles and leaning on her during the darker days, when his quest was bogged down by paradoxes, frustrations and the ghosts of his family's secrets. Ultimately, he found considerable success - but his career was stalled when he was outmatched by an intellectual rival- his young, strident, brilliantly original student, Ludwig Wittgenstein.
An insightful and complexly layered narrative, Logicomix reveals both Russell's inner struggle and the quest for the foundations of logic. Narration by an older, wiser Russell, as well as asides from the author himself, make sense of the story's heady and powerful ideas. At its heart, Logicomix is a story about the conflict between pure reason and the persistent flaws of reality, a narrative populated by great and august thinkers, young lovers, ghosts and insanity.
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Apostolos Doxiadis
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Apostolos Doxiadis (Greek: Απόστολος Δοξιάδης) was born in Brisbane, Australia in 1953, and grew up in Greece.
Although interested in fiction and the arts from his youngest years, a sudden and totally unexpected love affair with mathematics led him to New York's Columbia University at the age of fifteen. He did graduate work in Applied Mathematics at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, working on mathematical models for the nervous system.
After his studies, Apostolos returned to Greece and his adolescent loves of writing, cinema and the theater. For some years he directed professionally for the theater, and in 1983 made his first film Underground Passage (in Greek). His second film, Terirem (1986) won the prize of the International Center for Artistic Cinema (CICAE) at the 1988 Berlin International Film Festival.
Since the mid-eighties, most of Apostolos' work has been in fiction. He has published four novels in Greek, Parallel Life (1985), Makavettas (1988), Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture (1992) and Three Little Men (1997). His translation of Uncle Petros was published internationally in 2000, to great critical acclaim, and has since been translated into over thirty languages. Apostolos now writes in both Greek and English.
Apart from his work in fiction, Apostolos has written two plays. In 1999, he wrote and directed the musical shadow puppet play "The Tragical History of Jackson Pollock, Abstract Expressionist", accompanied by a volume of texts and images, Paralipomena. In 2006, his play Seventeenth Night had a year-long run in an Athens theatre. The play is a fictional recreation of the last days in the life of the great logician, and father of the incompleteness theorem, Kurt Gödel.
In autumn 2008, Apostolos, completed the graphic novel Logicomix, co-authored with Christos H. Papadimitriou, with art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie di Donna. The book's story is based on the epic quest for the foundations of mathematics. Logicomix was published in Autumn 2009 by Bloomsbury in the U.S. and the U.K.
Apart from his work in the various modes of storytelling, in the past few years, Apostolos has been studying the relationship between mathematics and narrative. He is currently editing a volume on mathematics and narrative with mathematician Barry Mazur, of Harvard University, due to be published in 2010.
Apostolos lives in Athens with his wife, the novelist Dorina Papaliou, and their children.
===From other countries
dore
5.0 out of 5 stars European comics are smart!
Reviewed in Japan on 12 February 2011
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I am in love with Logicomix! It became one of my favorite books ever.
The idea to create a profile of the Logical Thinking by talking about the lives of the thinkers can sound boring.
BUT IS AWESOME.
The way they develop their uncertain about the relation of Logic Thinking, Mathematics and Madness is so interesting. They contextualized it into the American discussion about the Second World War and bring it to the discussion of our times.
Everything in a great comics style!
BUY! Life changing! Give yourself a treat!
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Amazon Kunde
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and beautiful
Reviewed in Germany on 15 June 2016
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Highly recommended for fans of comics, math and philosophy. The author is famous in Greece for the book “Uncle Petros and the Goldbach Conjecture” - also recommended.
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Dewtag
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Canada on 30 August 2022
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One of my favourite books, influenced me hugely when I was a teen. Both the story and the artwork are stellar.
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Mto boas !!! Gostei de tdo das cores , da qualidade tb
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in Brazil on 29 April 2025
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It was given as a gift... he loved it devoured the book over the holiday
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JaMo
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect gift
Reviewed in Mexico on 4 January 2021
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It was a gift for my 15 yo son, and he loved it.
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Thomas Riggins
5.0 out of 5 stars Comic book logic
Reviewed in the United States on 21 October 2009
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Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou, Art by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna (New York, Bloomsbury, 2009) pp. 347.
Reviewed by Thomas Riggins
This is an excellent graphic novel, Howard Zinn calls it "extraordinary," about the life and times of Bertrand Russell and his search for the foundations of mathematics. Believe it or not, this is a really good read and not a dry and esoteric exercise in the history of mathematics.
In a brief "Overture" we are told this is a real honest to God comic book and it has a real story line about real people and events (although some fictional elements have been added to juice up the story they are minor).
The framework of the book is a lecture given by Bertrand Russell at an American university a few days after the invasion of Poland in 1939. On his way to the lecture hall Russell encounters protesters who want the US to stay o ut of the war and they expect Russell, who was world famous for his opposition to WWI, to join with them. Instead he invites them to his lecture with the idea that his views on the new war will be revealed. They accept and they all go to the lecture hall together.
Russell's topic is "The Role of Logic in Human Affairs" but he actually recounts the major episodes in his life and his philosophical search to establish the truth of mathematics as a branch of logic. Actually the comic ends in 1939 and Russell lived another 30 or so years so there is room for a follow up comic.
His "lecture" (it's not an historical lecture just an excuse to introduce Russell as the narrator, is divided into six parts covering Russell's life from childhood up to the outbreak of the second world war.
The novel depicts Russell's development as a philosopher and mathematician, his years at Cambridge, his imprisonment for anti-war activities in WW I, his broken first marriage, his and his second wife's founding of a progressive school for youth to test his educational views, and his relations to all the great mathematicians and major anglophone philosophers of his day as he and Alfred North Whitehead attempt to establish the foundations of mathematics in logic in their three volume magnum opus Principia Mathematica, and the undoing of their project by Ludwig Wittgenstein and Kurt Godel.
Russell ends his speech by saying to his American audience that he can't tell them what to do with respect to fighting or not fighting in W.W.II but that logic is still important in its own right and they will have to logically think this out for themselves.
Anyone with an interest in 20th Century Anglo-American philosophy will really enjoy reading this book. I have only skimmed the surface in this review.
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José G.
5.0 out of 5 stars A real gem
Reviewed in Spain on 3 June 2023
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A great success in presenting this story in the form of a comic book.
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Bekxy Kuriakose
5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning grahic memoir in the life of Bertrand Russell and the foundations of logic in Mathematics
Reviewed in India on 21 August 2020
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Graphic Novel Review
An Epic Search for Truth
Logicomix is an illustrated condensed graphic memoir chronicling the life of the great philosopher, mathematician and logician cum Nobel Laureate Bertrand Russell. Russell devoted most of his life in the pursuit of setting right the logical foundations of Mathematics.
Before this I knew nothing about Bertrand Russell. This 350 page book with its glossy pages, stunning gorgeous artwork and narrative interspersed with the authors own debates and dilemmas on how to develop the story and bring it to a logical conclusion provides for fascinating reading. The flow.of the book is in the form of a lecture given by Russell at an American University on "The Role of Logic in Human Affairs" where he is accosted by a group of protestors called the isolationists to join their protest to keep US out of the second world war. He invites them to come and listen to his lecture. And thereby begins his own life story. A story which concludes by his asking the audience and protestors to reflect on this : " If even in Logic and Mathematics the paragons of certainty, we cannot have perfect assurances of reason, then even less can this be achieved in the messy business of human affairs- either private or public"
Even if you are not passionate about Mathematics, boolean logic, set theory or predicate calculus this book may help you to grasp the enormous contributions of a man like Russell and his contemporaries including his protege Ludwig Wittgenstein while at the same time highlighting the consequences on their private and personal lives and mental well being. Their work also influenced Alan Turing the father of modern day Computers. Today's machine alogorithms and programming languages rest on the bedrock of scientific logic that Russell and other mathematicians of early 20th century devoted their lives to study.
The authors Apostolos and Christos themselves have studied mathematics and computer science. And the artwork is by the husband wife team of Alecos and Annie.
A graphic novel worthy of being dedicated to the greatest minds of the 20th century in Mathematics and Philosophy. And which will suck the reader into its fascinating, tragic and emotional journey.
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Claudiom4sir
5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice
Reviewed in Italy on 17 October 2018
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The book is of excellent quality, both in terms of material and content.
It's very interesting because it's a true story.
In my opinion it is not a book for everyone, if you understand a bit of logic you will surely like it.
Completely in English, but easily understandable.
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João Vinagre Santos
5.0 out of 5 stars Formidable
Reviewed in France on 9 December 2014
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Scientifically correct work, a very good story. For those who like math... and for those who like it :-)
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Harm Hilvers
5.0 out of 5 stars Great work of philosophy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 September 2011
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Usually, I read philosophy in the form of a traditional book or essay, as most people do. But after reading this novel I have become convinced that more books and stories should be rewritten and recreated in the form of a graphic novel. Why? Because that form gives writers the possibility to present lines of thought and arguments from within the life stories of the people and cultures involved. I believe that stories and arguments in general - and philosophical ones in particular - are developed from the context of the author's life. This so-called context adds an extra layer for the reader to make it easier to understand and grasp the meaning of the story or argument at hand.
Exactly this is what happened with this graphic novel. The authors did not only tell a story of logic and truth, but also presented the reader lots of information about the main characters and the historical events of that time. This 'extra' makes it easier to understand why arguments were developed in the way they did or why people started the projects they started.
Of course, this graphic novel is not completely true to reality or history. And of course, there are gaps within the philosophical arguments. But that is not a big problem I think. This book tries to tell the story about the search for truth in such a way that everyone can understand it, not only die-hard philosophers who read Russell or Wittgenstein before they go to sleep.
This book is an excellent introduction into the search for logic and truth, but I hope it's not the end for anyone. There is so much more to discover!
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Bertie
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente
Reviewed in Spain on 23 April 2018
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El mejor libro que he leído en años. Buen gusto, inteligencia y un profundo conocimiento de la obra de Russell nos dejan un libro maravilloso, indispensable para conocer mejor la vida de este intelectual sin igual en el siglo XX.
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The Geek
5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable and enlightening experience
Reviewed in Canada on 23 June 2020
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A well-told story full of interesting content and excellent artwork. I do hope that there's a sequel as suggested by the epilogue!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
Reviewed in India on 10 December 2019
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If you like to read about great scientific journeys placed in their historical and cultural context, this book is definitely for you! Bertrand Russell is the central figure in this story, which revolves around the dream of Russell and others of constructing a solid foundation for mathematics in the early 1900s. The dreamers are rudely awakened, first by a paradox discovered by Russell himself, and then by Godel's famous Incompleteness Theorem. Parallel themes of war, rationality (or lack thereof) in human affairs, and the manic undercurrents of insanity in the lives of logicians give the book many layers. I finished this book in one day - the comic book format makes it easy to read and very enjoyable.
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Molto bello, da consigliare!
Reviewed in Italy on 7 May 2017
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Consigliato a tutti gli appassionati di storia della logica...ma non solo! Story telling affascinante e disegni particolari! Un capolavoro del fumetto contemporaneo
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Fili S-ville
5.0 out of 5 stars A Quest to Discover Logic
Reviewed in Mexico on 31 January 2019
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It gives a general overview of the period of when logic was given a new definition. Starting from Aristóteles to Turing
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Rob Hardy
5.0 out of 5 stars A New Comic Hero
Reviewed in the United States on 1 October 2009
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Stand back, Spiderman. Back off, Batman. Comic books have a new hero with unexpected powers, and he isn't even imaginary. He's Bertrand Arthur William, the Third Earl Russell. To most Americans, Bertrand Russell is notorious for being an outspoken atheist long before the current crop of Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, and others. He was also a pacifist, and during the last decades of his long life he campaigned for nuclear disarmament. He makes his debut in comics, however, not for these causes, but for his work in the early twentieth century trying to make sure that mathematics was founded on irrefutable logic. If you think that seems an inauspicious or inappropriate topic for a comic book, you are simply wrong; _Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth_ (Bloomsbury) is consistently surprising, informative, and delightful. Authors Apostolos Doxiadis, a novelist who has worked mathematical themes into fiction, and Christos H. Papadimitriou, a computer science professor, working with Alecos Papadatos for art and Annie di Donna for color, have made a good-looking 350-page introduction to Russell's mathematical life as well as to basic mathematical ideas that he resolved, or failed to resolve. Don't worry if you didn't like math; these are realms of mathematics far above what you got in high school, and while none of us is going to understand them at Russell's level of understanding, _Logicomix_ provides clear introductions to them and shows why Russell and others were so passionately interested in nailing down all the truth they could.
The frame story is set in 1939, when Russell is in America, and England has just declared war on Germany. He gives a lecture which is a series of flashbacks on how he and others struggled with this very basic question. The lecture panels are in subdued colors, the flashbacks are somewhat brighter, and most colorful of all are the pages devoted to the authors and artists of the book itself, pondering how to show the ideas and arguing over themes and presentations. When Russell got to Cambridge, he found that mathematics was undermined by circular reasoning and intuition. Unshakable logical foundations were needed, and he determined that he himself would construct them and would build the mathematical edifice upon them. For a decade he labored with Alfred North Whitehead on _Principia Mathematica_, an attempt to weed out paradoxes. This was a work going back to fundamentals so deep that it takes the first 362 of its thousands of pages to get to the useful demonstration that 1 + 1 = 2. One of the people who read the book (to Russell's knowledge, the only person to do so) was Kurt Gödel, who was to show that Russell and Whitehead's goal was illusory; he mathematically proved that no logical system could capture all of mathematics, and that there would always be mathematical questions that could not be answered and mathematical truths that could not be proved. Russell's great quest turned out to be a failure, but it turned out to be a hugely productive one, as from the work of Gödel, Turing, and others profiled here, we do have a groundwork for mathematics and logic, only it is not at all the bedrock that Russell had set out to find. The search for truth here is not just Russell's but that of mathematicians through the centuries.
_Logicomix_ is good-looking, with glossy papers and a rich color scheme. The often witty pictures take every advantage of comic book art, with exaggerated perspective, elevated views, big-letter sound effects, and nightmares depicted as reality. Russell's story is a great one, and piquant when including details of his erratic and decidedly illogical love life. The book winds up with the authors and their crew going to a performance of Aeschylus's Oresteia that nicely sums up big themes of war, justice, madness, and wisdom that are within Russell's tale. I sincerely hope if you know anyone interested in comics or anyone with the slightest interest in mathematics or philosophy, or if you know a young person whose thoughts might turn that way, that you will ensure a copy gets into that person's hands.
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Hugh Scantlebury
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly creative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 January 2010
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Just finish Logicomix. As others have commented, it is a courageous tale encompassing many of the key characters who helped define modern mathematical reasoning and thought. You don't have to be an expert of either mathematics or philosophy to enjoy it but I did find myself dipping into Wikipedia on a regular basis to discover more!!
The presence within the novel of not only the authors (Apostolos Doxiades and Christos Papdimitriou), but also the artists (Alecos Papadatos and Anne Di Donna - both of whom by the way have created one of the lushest and richly conceived graphic novels on a par with my all time heroine, Posy Simmonds) is a clever contrivence which works well and adds real humanity to the tail.
PLEASE can we have a follow up (as per the exchange betwen Alecos and Christos on page 306): "The story of computers"; "a full new book rather, to which this is but the prologue!"
Whatever, highly recommended. Hugely enjoyable.
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Kristjan Knigge
5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
Reviewed in Germany on 17 October 2020
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For anyone interested in logic and the history of modern skepticism. Very well wrtitten, and the illustrations are amazing.
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Eric Blair
5.0 out of 5 stars Une réussite à tous égards
Reviewed in France on 28 October 2009
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Il fallait du culot pour se lancer dans une telle opération. Les concepteurs de cet OVNI de la bande dessinée ont réussi leur pari. Non seulement on suit avec intérêt l'histoire, mais on apprend beaucoup tout réfléchissant avec plaisir. En supplément les auteurs se permettent d'adopter un regard critique sur leur propre travail. Un projet déditorial comme on n'en trouve qu'un seul par décennie.
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Edward Mateus
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Brazil on 15 March 2025
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Arrived earlier, well packaged, I missed a freebie bookmark
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reflection on logic and life
Reviewed in Germany on 29 January 2017
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Beautifully illustrated and multi layered. The book considers several aspects of truth and writing in subtle ways. Its ideas and images haunt your thoughts for ages after. I hope they produce more.
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Beaubien Christian
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 31 August 2017
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I read it twice : ))
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Rafael Fernandes
5.0 out of 5 stars Product received
Reviewed in Brazil on 8 January 2024
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Product received on time.
It was not damaged during delivery.
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Roy
5.0 out of 5 stars superb
Reviewed in Mexico on 20 February 2020
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Very good book
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M
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent introduction to philosophy
Reviewed in India on 24 September 2021
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This book is, above all, an excellent introduction to philosophy for someone who has no exposure to it. It narrates excerpts from the life of Bertrand Russell, and touches upon some of the important figures in western analytic philosophy during that time. Written in a way that's intriguing and accessible to all, I highly recommend this book.
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A. DIDARZADEH
5.0 out of 5 stars It truly is epic.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 February 2013
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This epic graphic novel takes you through the life of Bertrand Russel, and serves as an insightful look into the development of mathematics, philosophy and logic over the course of his life. The novel beautifully demonstrates the intricate and often maddening details of truth as we know it, and does so with real heart. The book does well to weave a wealth of academic theories and ideas into the narrative without ever sounding preachy, or feeling intrusive. Neither does it seek to dumb down the magnitude or depth of the topics covered. As well as all this, it manages to add some cheeky humour to the table. The illustration makes it as much of a treat for the eyes as it is for the mind.
Highly recommended for anyone with the slightest interest in mathematics, philosophy or the nature of truth.
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Antonio Taranto
5.0 out of 5 stars cutie
Reviewed in Italy on 12 April 2024
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Interesting
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Doctor Moss
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Role of Logic in Human Affairs"
Reviewed in the United States on 28 April 2012
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Bertrand Russell and Principia Mathematica wouldn't be at the top of my list as candidates for graphic novels, but this is good, even provocative. You can quarrel with details of the depictions of personalities, theories, and proofs, but it's still as good a mix of entertainment and intellectual history as you could really hope for.
The story elevates Russell's (and Whitehead's) quest for a logical foundation to mathematics to the central tension of both Russell's life and the history of philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. For Russell, it's a search for certainty in a life threatened by madness. For philosophy, it's a turning point not only in the philosophy of mathematics, but in the understanding of the relationship between reason and reality. And it is the link, via Von Neumann and Turing, between logic and the foundations of modern computing.
Virtually all of those themes are debatable -- in what sense Russell and Whitehead were seeking a "foundation" (e.g., an explanation vs. a justification), what role the successes and failures of Principia Mathematica played in the changing status of rationalism, and what debt computing theory owes specifically to the work of Russell and Whitehead and the controversies arising from it. The story places Russell firmly at the center, even putting him on a kind of odyssey, visiting and conversing in person with virtually all the major figures in mathematics and philosophy of the time.
The authors clearly present the work as at least partly fictional, inventing meetings for example between Russell and Frege and between Russell and Cantor, none of which ever happened. And Russell's story is told via an imagined lecture by Russell, attended in part by anti-war (World War II) protesters Russell has encountered on his way into the lecture. The entire story is framed by conversations among the authors, about Russell, Principia, and the story itself, lending a kind of post-modern effect to the whole thing.
If there's a flaw I would pick on, it wouldn't be the details of the biographies, theories, or proofs. This is a graphic novel, after all -- if you want academic precision, you should have gone in a different direction. On the other hand, I didn't find a lot of drama in Russell's message to the protesters. I think I get it -- "There's no royal road to truth", as he says, and you can't expect so much of "the role of logic in human affairs". You can't fall back on the dictates of certainty -- in the end, there is no escaping the responsibility to make judgements -- a profound recognition for sure, but the punch in its depiction here is lacking for me.
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Tanibe
5.0 out of 5 stars Very good
Reviewed in Spain on 15 January 2021
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easy to understand and entertaining!
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José Mosqueira
5.0 out of 5 stars Deep and pleasant
Reviewed in Spain on 29 May 2019
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Very interesting script with wonderful drawings
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Thamiris de Santana
5.0 out of 5 stars excelled
Reviewed in Brazil on 21 July 2015
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Very good book that tells, in addition to the story of the great logician Bertrand Russel, other mathematicians as well. Immersive storytelling and beautiful art!
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No Muskle
2.0 out of 5 stars Mix yes, logico nope.
Reviewed in France on 8 July 2023
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One star for the drawings, one star for trying.
Too many digressions. Chaotic flow. Highly superficial descriptions of concepts. The authors uselessly inject themselves inside the story, destroying the already shaky reading flow. I don't know who is this graphic novel target audience. You'd better read wikipedia if the history of logic is an interest of yours. Those blabla-comix are surfing on a long fad... Just a point of view.
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Sumimus
5.0 out of 5 stars Formalism vs. Intuition: The Philosophical Tension of Logicomix
Reviewed in the United States on 9 January 2026
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This graphic novel—Logicomix—is a rare and remarkable achievement. Centered on the life of Bertrand Russell, the narrative unfolds as a poignant reflection on the personal struggles and intellectual passions that drove him toward the study of logic.
What makes this work particularly refreshing is its meta-narrative structure. The story operates on multiple levels, frequently breaking the "fourth wall" to show the creators debating how to translate the complex, often turbulent history of logic into a visual medium. This approach provides much-needed clarity for a subject that is anything but simple.
The influence of co-author and computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou is palpable throughout. His profound faith in technology is evident, bringing to mind his famous optimistic claim: "The Internet is our prime hope for peace, democracy, and freedom!" (though one wonders if he would stand by such a bold statement in today’s digital climate).
However, the book is not without its flaws. I found the portrayal of Kurt Gödel’s work somewhat disappointing, as it leans more toward the negative than the positive. In reality, Gödel was the visionary who dismantled the rigid dream of formalism as the only path to truth. His perspective was liberating; he proved that truth is inherently larger and more expansive than what formal logic alone can capture.
In contrast, Papadimitriou’s worldview—one that arguably treats the human experience as something akin to a sophisticated machine, missing the more profound, transcendental notes of Gödel’s legacy.
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Athan
4.0 out of 5 stars Loads of Fun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2014
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I read "Uncle Petros" in the original Greek and loved it. On the evidence of the dialogue in "Logicomix," the author, an amateur mathematician, has a much better command of the Greek language than any other, and I presume that's what's steered him toward the comic format here.
It's mighty successful!
There's poetic license here, a lot of interpretation, a fair amount of vanity (I once went to a lecture where Doxiadis spoke and he's a lot thinner in "Logicomix" than in real life) but the bottom line is that the book is vastly entertaining, highly instructive and paints a deep, complex portrait of Bertrand Russell, takes you though his relationships with the mathematicians and logicians he worked with, including Frege, Whitehead, Wittgenstein and Godel and as an added bonus teaches you a fair amount of logic.
It's easy to complain that it's not complete, or that it's not fully accurate etc. but IT'S A COMIC BOOK for crying out loud. If you want more there are libraries out there.
I guess the ultimate measure of the book's success will be if I find it in me to schlep over to Imperial and take out a couple books on logic...
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Nikola Zubic
4.0 out of 5 stars Not perfect condition of the comic book, but content is great! Read 100 pages so far.
Reviewed in Germany on 13 March 2025
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The comic book was not in entirely perfect condition; it had one small scratch, but other than that, it is great. Read so far 100 pages.
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Jaime Díaz
5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of the fundamental crisis
Reviewed in Mexico on 28 May 2017
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A great work, which gives a very clear picture of what was the crisis of the foundations of mathematics in the first decades of the twentieth century. Enlightening, informative and clear. A great job.
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Sibbor
5.0 out of 5 stars A MASTERPIECE
Reviewed in Italy on 1 September 2016
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there's nothing to say, BUY this fantastic book NOW!!!
A supreme book, which tells (The) beautiful story for adults and children
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DatBoyM
4.0 out of 5 stars Good entry point for non comic readers
Reviewed in India on 22 August 2019
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Good art style, good story, characterisation, script, good breakdown of heavy concepts and a fun read despite the subject matter. Can't complain. The non-Russell parts feel pretentious sometimes. Got it for 415.
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Justin Laverdure
4.0 out of 5 stars Seems like the authors tried to take few artistic liberties with ...
Reviewed in Canada on 14 August 2017
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Very pleasant read! Seems like the authors tried to take few artistic liberties with the material. The art is colourful and clear.
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Erick Chavez Valladares
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in Mexico on 24 August 2018
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Very good book, good introduction to mathematical thinking.
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Inon Zuckerman
5.0 out of 5 stars First time reading an "adult" comics. LOVED IT !!!
Reviewed in the United States on 23 November 2011
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This was my first experience with a comic book for "adults". I do have a lot of reading hours in my youth with superhero's comics, but I never really had a chance to try one of the "serious" ones. Anyway, stumbling upon this book at the bookstore, and being an enthusiast of both Logic and the history of science, I decided to pick it and give it a try.
Two weeks later, I must say this was a great experience!
It really amazes me how natural it felt to get the story as a combination of text and pictures, and I will surly try another comic book in the (near) future. As for the book itself, it describes the story of Bertrant Russell and his quest to provide firm logical foundations to the field of Mathematics. In the way we get acquainted to many other Philosophers and Mathematicians of that time (the Vienna circle) and get to understand a very important time in the development of logic, Math and eventually computers.
The story itself does feel sometimes a bit slow with too many words in the ballons, but I guess it has to be so when presenting a Math base storyline. The logical concepts are illustrated beautifully without explicitly showing any equation. I also liked the fact that in the end the authors took the time to explain how the real historical events were intertwined with the fictional story. Also the glossary in the end of the book was also very helpful and insightful to understand the concepts a little bit more than what is described in the book itself.
Overall, reading Logicomix was a very pleasant, entertaining and educational experience. I truly recommend the book to anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the interesting character Bertrant Russell and a very influential time in the history of science.
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Another Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great!
Reviewed in Canada on 6 December 2015
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Great, great, great!
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Dean P. D'souza
5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping story! By master story-tellers!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2014
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This is such a great graphic novel! A true-life story told by master story-tellers. Don't read this if you're expecting to learn about advanced maths and philosophy. It's a story of a man's attempt to search for "truth". And it's a thoroughly enjoyable one. It's not a series of boring facts or lists of factual events, Russell's story is recreated as a gripping story - involving people, passions, adventure, dialogue, discovery, love, storms, highs, lows, even madness.
The theme of the book is logic and madness. And it's a true story. I highly recommend this book. I've been gripped since turning the first few pages of Chapter One. I've only just now put the book down and will read the remaining last two (of six) chapters tomorrow night.
I love it so much, I'm gonna lend it to some of my friends!
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Cliente Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinary comic.
Reviewed in Italy on 20 December 2017
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I bought this product as a gift for someone who knows math and physics and it was really much appreciated.
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joel rai
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book that informs you
Reviewed in India on 5 September 2017
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Amazing book that informs you, instructs you and then leaves you thinking. It caters to your intellect, to your love of reading and to the innate yearning of humans to listen to stories. The sardonic tone and humour break the intense seriousness of the topic, which, however, is discussed in a way that everyone understands.
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Gil
5.0 out of 5 stars Great comic. I like it very much!!
Reviewed in Spain on 21 January 2020
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Entertaining and profound.
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chsba
5.0 out of 5 stars Departure into new mathematics - told in an exciting way
Reviewed in Germany on 18 November 2010
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Truth finding in mathematics? Should be self-evident - because what is more certain than the result of mathematical proof? Mathematicians would probably have agreed to this by the beginning of the 19th century, but then the basics of mathematics were called into question. And when you shake the foundations, the building above it also starts to vibrate. Russel himself, as a seeker of the one truth, approaches philosophy, logic and, of course, mathematics by means - and contributes significantly to shaking things with his paradox.
Mathematics is embedded in a double framework story - Russel reports on his aspirations and his life in a lecture at the beginning of the 2nd World War in America - repeatedly interrupted by the discussion of history in the graphic novel's team of authors and draftsmen.
The presentation and narrative flow make it easy to follow the story. A clear reading recommendation from me.
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shamanth
5.0 out of 5 stars Go for it..!!
Reviewed in India on 1 September 2020
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A wonderful book, a great read for someone who is interested in graphic novels and not in to DC comics. Most importantly it tells the story of the great Bertrand Russell, what more one can ask for ?? Must read.
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Robert Westdale
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on 26 January 2015
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Excellent book!
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JaysnHood
5.0 out of 5 stars read this if you study computer science
Reviewed in Germany on 25 June 2012
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I've seen this book at a book fair in Leipzig, Germany. I fell in love with the title and bought it on the spot. I read it at the beginning of my studies in business information management (computer science with business administration) and it was totally helping. If gives you an entertaining look behind the scences of mathematics and philosophy (logic in particular).
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Tommy M. Mcguire
5.0 out of 5 stars A self-referential review
Reviewed in the United States on 29 May 2012
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I am tempted to begin by pointing out that someone once said something like, "Great minds talk about ideas; smaller minds talk about people." But I won't.
Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou and illustrated by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna, is a biographical graphic novel about the life, philosophy, and logic of Bertrand Russell.
As a biography, it is excellent. Although I do not know the details of Russell's life beyond the Wikipedia entry and the graphic novel is admittedly not entirely accurate, I believe it does get to the heart of the lives of the logicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As a graphic novel, it is also very good. One of the artists, Annie Di Donna, is noted in the short biographies as having worked as an animator on Babar and Tintin, and Logicomix has a Tintin-esque, slightly archaic, somewhat realistic feel that matches well with the time period and telling of the story. The combination of caricatures and realistic backgrounds may not to be everyone's tastes, though. (I, personally, live in fear of Vint Cerf's career drawn in bubblegum-pop manga (the Japanese comics, not the dog).)
Now, back to the quote that I resisted the urge to start this review with. I'm at least theoretically a computer scientist and this is not the first book by Christos Papadimitriou I have read; I learned automata theory from Papdimitriou's and Harry Lewis' Elements of the Theory of Computation (the first edition, with the rotated square on the cover). The terrain which Russell's work in logic explored (or created, depending on your viewpoint) along with Cantor, Frege, Gödel and the other characters in Logicomix, represents some of humanity's most important intellectual territory. The properties of infinity, of formal systems, of logic and computation, represent fundamental ideas no less than thermodynamics and relativistic or quantum physics. (If that sounds overblown to you, check out Gödel's Theorem: An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse by Torkel Franzén. You may well find that you're right.) And an understanding of the people involved does help in understanding how the ideas worked out, to understand why the ideas came out as they did.
Some of the reviewers of Logicomix have disliked the layered, self-referential method used to tell the story: the narration of Russell's life is framed by a biographical lecture given by Russell on the eve of World War II and that overall story is framed by the tale of Apostolos, Alecos, Annie, and a researcher, Anne, presenting their take on Russell's life to Christos and arguing over the best way to tell the story and indeed the meaning of it. This is capped off with an excursion to a performance of Aeschylus' Oresteia, I suppose making Athena and the Furies characters as well.
However, a self-referential structure is in turn vital to the creation (or rather discovery) of Russell's, Cantor's, and Gödel's major works. Most of the important ideas are self-referential, and the notion that logic, that mathematics, would be able to talk about itself, would need to talk about itself, is likely the key to understanding the state of logic after Russell, Gödel, and the others. As a result, self-reference is so important to, and so much fun for, the biography that I think it would be greatly missed if it were not present.
I'm afraid I still don't understand the title, though.
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2.0 out of 5 stars shabby
Reviewed in Spain on 2 August 2023
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I bought the book second-hand with a rating of “Like New”, the book I received is quite far from qualifying in that state, the cover is starting to be broken, apart from being worn out. The interior is correct, although not ideal.
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Giacomo Mauro D'Ariano
5.0 out of 5 stars Bellissimo
Reviewed in Italy on 28 December 2012
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Simply beautiful, historically correct, compelling, like the other historical comic books by Ottaviani. I also recommend the two books by the same author on Feynman and Bohr.
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Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Get it even if you don't like comics
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 November 2025
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One of the very few graphic novels that I own, but I still like it.
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Amazon Käufer
5.0 out of 5 stars Item as described, fast delivery, everything ok
Reviewed in Germany on 15 October 2023
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Item as described, fast delivery, everything ok
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Michael George
5.0 out of 5 stars the limits of our humanity in the pursuit of truth
Reviewed in the United States on 17 August 2017
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In this book, we see some of the personality and characteristics, chiefly of Bertrand Russell, but also of other people involved with the efforts to establish a connection between logic and the language, or perhaps, game, of mathematics. This develops a significant picture of people who saw the possibility of making small incremental adjustments via logic to establish significant aspects of mathematics. This, however, was not the world that was unfolding before their efforts. Instead, as with Russell's paradox, small incremental changes were shown sometimes to lead to large, unpredictable changes in meaning. The book tries to capture this by suggesting a proximity of these intellectual activities to madness and the chaos of war. While Russell never crossed the fine line into the distress that nonlinearity can bring with it, some of the people he was pictured to associate with did cross the line, such as Wittgenstein, who actually participated as a soldier in WWI. I liked the book. It gave a flavor for this subtle boundary between civilization and madness. It also suggested that those such as Russell in pursuit of truth at a deep level were coming very close to that line. The people who worked on the book were also depicted. Their task was not this deep philosophical pursuit: They lived their lives calmly remotely from the borderlands. This is an extremely good book for giving an indication of what it means to get close to madness or the chaos of war, and how those far from it can feel insulated, pursuing their mundane purposes on the surface of life. I recommend this book for obtaining a view of the limits of our humanity in pursuit of the truth, but not for any deep philosophical or mathematical insights.
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paolo napoleoni
5.0 out of 5 stars Really nice
Reviewed in Italy on 15 January 2014
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a nice surprise and, logic, an under-discussed topic Everyone takes it for granted that they are logical and intelligent but then we discover that Italy is full of people who think in Italian
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Indraneel
5.0 out of 5 stars An Epic worth its name
Reviewed in India on 17 November 2019
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The blurb described what to expect from the book; and it was exactly that. A very satisfying biographical look into the life of such a noted thinker. Nice way of bringing together subjects like Mathematics and Philosophy. Also loved the way they illustrated the thought processes of the authors and others involved. Recommend it highly.
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Laura
1.0 out of 5 stars The book was used, worn out
Reviewed in Spain on 1 March 2024
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I didn't like it. The book is folded at the corners and the worn cover and back cover look like an old book not a first-hand book.
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Magisterium
5.0 out of 5 stars A slice of Mathematical history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 18 October 2016
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This is an education in the history of a particular period of Mathematics. The Maths was beyond me, but this in no way detracted from the story, which is really more about the lives of mathematical geniuses, most prominently Russell and Whitehead who collaborated to produce Principia Mathematica. There are a number of tragic figures, the german genius David Hilbert, who rejected his mentally ill son; George Cantor who invented set theory, but died in poverty ; Henri Poincare who objected to Cantor's work - I couldn't grasp the Mathematical basis for the objections, but it's good enough for me that these controversies were going on and being passionately debated in these rarefied circles; Russell himself, but a great man no doubt.
I gave this to my 12 year old to read and he struggled a little, however he now has a context for the maths he is learning, which I think will enrich his experience of it.
An excellent and surprising graphic novel, highly recommended even if Maths is not your thing.
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Client d'Amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars The bock arrive really fast!
Reviewed in Germany on 28 September 2019
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The book is an amazing way to Shortell a good history
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Lance Goebel
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling story - Beautiful Artwork - An important message
Reviewed in the United States on 29 October 2013
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I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Doxiadis centers his story around the telling of Bertrand Russell's lifelong struggle to provide an absolutely certain truth to a large group of students and protesters against the United States' entrance into the second World War. Employing beautiful artwork produced by Alecos Papaodatos and Annie Di Donna, the author employs Russell in order to provide not only an interesting, basic history of logic, but a thought-provoking moral lesson.
Russell introduces us to his early doubt and hunger for certainty originating in his strict upbringing and exposure to various family tragedies. As he matures, he studies mathematics and later delves into philosophy; becoming especially engaged in an attempt to produce the certainty he longed for in the philosophy of mathematics. Following years of study and engagement with many giants in both mathematics and philosophy, Russell formulates a paradox which seems to destroy any hope for the certainty he'd been searching for. Shortly after, our narrator tells of his attempt to solve the paradox of his own invention. He spends years coauthoring a work with Alfred North Whitehead; he believes he's rescued the search for truth.
Everything eventually comes around full circle. Mishaps in Russell's personal life as well as his interactions with Wittgenstein and Gödel persuaded him that he'd been mistaken.
Bertrand ends his story with a personal plea of action and thought to the protesters and students present during his lecture. The moral of Russell's story is one that is seldom reflected upon; it encourages one to personally reflect on their own beliefs, calling for a humble self-doubt and acceptance of our fallibility as human beings.
Going into this comic, I was definitely not expecting to be hit with such a powerful and necessary message. I was most pleasantly surprised.
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katooba
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 August 2020
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This is an excellent book! I bought it as a gift, and wanted to have a 'quick flick through' before gifting it. I was immediately hooked, and ended up reading the whole book.
It's very easy-to-read and engaging, with lots of useful tit-bits of knowledge. I'd definitely recommend this.
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Anthony
5.0 out of 5 stars Lucid and riveting.
Reviewed in India on 5 July 2021
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It's fun to read a comic version of analytic philosophy made so simple and comical yet without omission of it's important concept.
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Francesco Federico
3.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy and Formalism
Reviewed in Italy on 23 December 2020
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The book was recommended to me by a University Professor of mine for topics concerning LOGIC.
The book is very nice but I thought that the English in which it is written was much easier and unfortunately I had to return it and buy the Italian version, I give 3 stars for this reason.
The Amazon service was IMPECCABLE, both in delivery and in return
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danielx
3.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious and thought provoking, but not a biography
Reviewed in the United States on 15 June 2013
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This graphic novel attempts to tell the history of the quest for the foundations of mathematical logic, as epitomized through the life and career of Bertrand Russell. It explores the vigorous (and ultimately futile) efforts of philosophers to find a firm basis for irrevocable truth, as built on the foundations of mathematics. A subsidiary theme is the peculiar relationship between such efforts and "madness" (as we used to call it), as indicated by the several individuals engaged in these efforts who teetered on the borders of sanity. Russell is central to the story -- indeed the novel purports to portray his boyhood, adolescence, early career, first marriage, and publication (with Alfred North Whitehead) of "Principia Mathematica." His intellectual encounters with Ludwig Wittgenstein are portrayed, as are fictionalized (i.e., entirely made- up) encounters with Georg Cantor, Gottlob Frege, David Hilbert, and Kurt Gödel. An extended appendix provides introductions to the historical figures alluded to in the graphics, along with summaries of such terms and topics as "algorithm," "predicate calculus," "Vienna Circle," and "Russell's paradox."
"Logicomix" is an ambitious and inventive work that has brought arcane aspects of mathematical logic and intellectual history to a new audience. The work brims with ideas, passion, and drama. I found the graphics skillfully done, the only flaw being the somewhat wooden and repetitious portrayals of people. Imaginative portrayals abound, all in full color, and sometimes with a single scene filling an entire page.
Despite this book's ambitions, as a one-time philosophy major and a long- term admirer of Bertrand Russell, I cannot wholeheartedly share the great enthusiasm of many other readers. (Of more than 140 reviews at Amazon, only three rate it below 3 stars). First, I found the book's dealings with philosophy to be superficial - less than one would get in a freshman- level college lecture. Second, the authors repeatedly interject themselves into the story with cartoon panels full of argumentative dialogue and (oftimes) peripheral trivia. Personally, I found the device distracting and annoying.
Third, contrary to many reviewers, this is not a biography of Russell. Its portrayal of Russell's life is full of outright inventions that bear no relationship to reality. In contrast to the account in "Logicomix", the newly orphaned baby Bertrand Russell was not deposited all alone at his grandparents' house; he moved there along with his older brother. His grandfather was not a spry gentleman who danced in his garden, but a frail, wheelchair bound man of 83. His grandfather did not introduce the boy to his library, leading young Bertie to resolve to return and investigate the locked cabinet of forbidden books - after all, Bertie was only three when he came to live with his grandparents, and his grandfather died when he was six. It was not a tutor who introduced Russell to Euclid's theorems, but his own brother Frank, also living at the estate. And then there's the running theme of the strange howlings that emanate from the attic, disturbing Russell's sleep for years -- these are revealed to emanate from an insane uncle who lives therein. This is a wholesale invention that owes more to Jane Eyre than to reality. There was no uncle in the attic, nor did the young Bertrand ever hear or imagine ghostly howlings. Why the authors felt inclined to invent such stories is hard to imagine. All of the chapters abound with inventions likely to mislead the reader into thinking them factual.
In the afterword to the book, the authors cheerfully admit to having invented "deviations from fact," insisting that their work be regarded as a "graphic novel" rather than a work of history. In their defense, one could argue that the invented encounters between Russell and other historical figures (e.g. Cantor, Frege, and Gödel) reflect actual encounters of the protagonist with their written ideas. One might even stretch the point and argue that the fictional boyhood they invent for Russell represents his later memories of a lonely boyhood and his adult fears of the possibility of insanity. Personally, I wish the book authors had not felt compelled to invent a fictionalized life for the protagonist. Russell is after all one of the 20th century's most interesting historical figures. The version of Russell's life portrayed will undoubtedly mislead the majority of readers (one reader enthusiastically proclaims: "I now have a far greater interest and understanding in the man and his life after reading this book.") For readers interested in the established facts of Bertrand Russell's life, three excellent biographies and Russell's own autobiography are available.
Overall, I am strongly conflicted in judging this work. My disappointment in the historical inaccuracies necessarily costs the book two stars in my rankings. However, the book has its merits, the chief one being that it may introduce to new readers some interesting philosophical questions and the historical figures who have grappled with them.
____________
Personal note: Most likely, some readers who loved this book will be eager to label my review "unhelpful." I respectfully suggest that the "helpful" / "unhelpful" responses to reviews are not intended to measure one's level of agreement. (One can disagree with a point of view but still regard it as a helpful contribution to respectful discourse, especially when it comes to a work as thought- provoking as this one.)
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Ronnie Gonzalez
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellently Done, But Some Flaws
Reviewed in the United States on 16 February 2016
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This is masterfully done in terms of the illustration and the story structure, but I'm not completely sold on the ultimate message. My particular problem is that so many people pretend to understand what Kurt Godel said, when virtually no one really does, if indeed many of the people who talk about his thesis have even read his seminal work, or could even understand it if they did -- I myself have tried, and definitely can't. Because of this, I find that most people who comment on Godel are really commenting on the authoritative book by Nagel which talks about it.
That's what I more or less did, and I came away with the impression that much of what Godel accomplished was not much more than a shell game of seeming to say something much more profound than what he actually did, which looks to me like more like he's simply exposed a sock-puppet process than anything.
Anyhow, the limitations of logic are there to be sure, but it's just a shame that this book doesn't talk about the real hidden messiah of the entire computer and telecommunications industry, Dr. Claude Shannon of MIT. Because he was able to take the "flawed and highly limited" body of logic and, using the logical algebra of George Boole, construct the logico-electronic foundations of all the various devices which allow me to be posting this very message on an Amazon server and then be transmitted over modified computers called routers and switches, to your very computer where you're reading this now. Not too shabby for the "flawed" and "limited" system of logic, eh?
Also, even with respect to self-repudiating recursive loop logic that is formally condemned as being not logic because it doesn't resolve to one definitive thing, please be aware that computer RAM memory systems were made possible by Claude Shannon, once again, by way of his logical "flip-flop" circuits. These circuits employ self-negating Moebius-strip sort of logic to keep a small cluster of circuits going back and forth, endlessly trying to resolve a trapped logic loop, and in this fashion they "trap" a value until such time as the value is finally released to be read, or the computer is powered off. So in a very broad sense of higher utilitarian perspective, they are essential for performing a crucial function and can thereby be thought of as trans-finite logic, if you will.
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Vampire Ducks
3.0 out of 5 stars Not great, but OK
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 February 2020
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What made this special was simply the fact that it was (sort of) about one of the most interesting intellectual "quests" of recent centuries. That is to say, the "foundational crisis" in mathematics and the attempt to make it secure and logically rigorous. And yet, in a way, this was also what made this ultimately such a disappointment. Becasue, in truth, it isn't really as much about this hugely fascinating theme as it might have been. The details on mathematical logic and foundations are actually quite paltry, and what explanation or description there is of the philosophical signicance of logicism, say, or of the foundational crisis in general and the attempt to resolve it, is sketchy and shallow. I do appreciate that it would be quite difficult to go into any of the issues in any depth without losing some readers. On the other hand, if you are prepared dumb things down and patronize the reader, then what exactly is the point of this? Still, one can make an excuse by appealling to the inherent difficulty of trying to put mathematical logic and philosophy into the graphical novel format (faced with the difficulty, the authors managed to avoid it completely by not making the attempt).
What is less excusable, I think, is just the way this story is told and structured. It is really quite bad. The "Russian doll" idea simply doesn't work here; in fact, it makes the narrative quite awkward and cumbersome. The authors repeatedly insering themselves in the middle of narrative as characters discssuing how best to write the story really doesn't add anything valuable to the story itself. It does afford the authors the opportunity to cover (in cursory, box-ticking fashion) topics which apparently they could think no way of addressing within the story itself. Which feels like some kind of cheap trick. Perhaps the authors were also persuaded that writing themselves as charcters, and breaking up the story, was clever and appropriate because this was "self-referential", and self-referenntial antinomies (Russell's Paradox in particular) lie at the heart of the foundational crisis. If that is so, then again it feels awfully misguided. Then there is the scene from Aeschylus' Oresteia, which bizarrely forms the final chapter of the book. It is supposed to be relevant because the main story, we are reminded again and again, is "tragic". Any further link is tenuous at best. But no matter, it's a great play and a fair amount of this graphic novel is set in Athens (albeit nothing to do with main story), so why not throw it in anyway? This is, well, ideosyncratic, to put it politely.
Having said all that, I am still giving this three stars out of five. That is mostly just for the idea of writing a graphic novel that, if not exactly *about* the foundational crisis of mathematics, the development of modern logic, the "incompleteness" if mathematics, the philosophical significance of these issues, has at least something to do with these things. It's a pity this isn't as good as it might've been. Still, it's not bad.
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Michael hammer
4.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular book, perhaps not "like new" condition, however
Reviewed in the United States on 6 January 2024
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An utterly stunning narrative retelling of the story of logicism, which, having grown up reading Russell's work, I know to be one of the most fascinating developments in the history of western thought. If you're curious about the foundations of mathematics, logic, or philosophy this is a story you must know. If you've studied the philosophy of mathematics or have never even heard of the project of its founding, this story will make for inspiring and elucidating reading. I love Russell's work, but I found many details of his life and work that hadn't heard.
All this said, the copy I received, described as "Like New" would certainly pass as "Good" condition, or possibly even "Very Good." The internal pages appear as if nearly untouched. However, the same sadly cannot be said of the cover. Keep this in mind when buying from used sellers.
In any case, I often feel that children make more earnestly and dispassionately inquisitive philosophers than those of their elder peers. The comic style plays into this perfectly, bringing out that inner, curious child in all of us. I hope it brings to you the same sense of wonder as the philosophy of mathematics has always brought about in me!
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Buck
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February 12, 2010
It’s marvellous that something like Logicomix exists: a graphic novel that seeks to put the Vienna Circle on the pop-culture map deserves a special Pulitzer for chutzpah (read those last three words aloud and you’d swear you were speaking Hochdeutsch). But I sensed an uncomfortable tension here between the genuine profundity of the ideas being explored and the inescapably hammy conventions of comic-book narrative. No doubt there’s a special, tiny place in my heart for hamminess, just as there’s a miniature compartment in my brain for profundity, but mash them up and my uncomplicated soul gets all squirmy. Which, incidentally, explains why Billy Corgan's poetry has never brought me the spiritual sustenance it obviously has to millions of others.
Although it’s only a small part of the story told in Logicomix, I’m fascinated by the unlikely bromance between Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. This is sort of unconscionable, but for the sake of brevity I’m going to translate their relationship into buddy-comedy terms: basically, Russell played the skirt-chasing Seth Rogen character to Wittgenstein’s high-strung, undersexed Paul Rudd. Of course, their differences ran a lot deeper than that. During the First World War, Russell’s pacifism landed him in prison, while Wittgenstein took the opposite route, volunteering for active duty on the eastern front and ending up a war hero (yes, brainy, unstable, rich-boy Wittgenstein. War hero. I shit you not. And in justifying his decision to enlist, he’d said that, before becoming a great philosopher, “he should become a human being.” Hard not to love the guy for that.)
I couldn’t philosophize my way out of a paper bag, but as I understand it (partially thanks to Logicomix), Russell and Wittgenstein didn’t exactly see eye to eye on the great metaphysical issues of the day, either. If this means anything to you, Russell was a straight-edge foundationalist, whereas Wittgenstein was a total, punk-rock anti-foundationalist. So what happened is, Bertie spent a good decade of his career building this lovely epistemological sand castle, and then one day his buddy Ludwig comes along and nonchalantly kicks the shit out of it. And so Russell was like, “Dude.” But no harm done. Russell got over it and maybe even secretly admired Wittgenstein all the more for it.
The lesson here is: don’t be friends with someone who’s much smarter than you unless you’re big-hearted enough to accept it. It’s a lesson I refuse to learn, but maybe you can profit from the example.
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Fuad
1,148 reviews
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April 8, 2017
The name
of the book is "Logic Comics" in English, meaning "logical comic", not "logical comedy". But translating the name of the book into Persian in this way is a bit out of tune and unsightly. This has led the Persian translator to do a creative job, and after obtaining the consent of the original authors of the comic, with a slight change in the meaning and not the structure of the words "logical comic", he chose the name "logical comedy" for the Persian translation.
In the previous review, I had objected to this name change, and I thought that this was due to a misunderstanding of "comic", which means both comedy and graphic story. But the translator himself and another great person were kind enough to explain what was going on in the comments, and thus the review was corrected.
Serious warning:
If you have planned for your future and have chosen a particular academic field or any other long-term goal, my strong advice is not to read this comic! You may want to throw all your plans away and immediately pursue logic and mathematics! Like me, I regretted not choosing logic and decided to devote all my time to modern logic.
The book
has been widely written about in reviews. The life story of one of the greatest contemporary logicians, Bertrand Russell, at the beginning of the century of linguistic analytic philosophy. A time when the philosophical fabrications of the past were cast aside and the standard of every scientific statement was its precision and clarity.
The very words I mentioned above initially made me hesitant to read the comic, because I thought that with the scant information I had about modern logic, I would not be able to get through the book. But in practice, I found that most of the book deals with Russell's own life, and his general motivations for his epic-logical journey, and very little goes into logical and mathematical discussions, and those are also very simple and sweet and easily understandable.
And Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein...
Why do I know so little about Wittgenstein??
English
Modern-Philosophy
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Riku Sayuj
668 reviews
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September 17, 2012
This wildly ambitious graphic novel is a fictional (auto?)biography of Bertrand Russell and traces his journey from doubt to certainty and back again.
It is littered with the lofty ideas of the many giants of mathematics and philosophy throughout, but is never daunting in its subject matter or too overreaching in its objectives. A list of the co-stars might be enough to induce you to stop reading this review, so I restrain myself from indulging.
The self-referential presentation, which shows the creators struggling with the same questions, helps the readers get into the real spirit of the 'Quest' and enjoy the ride and its uncertainties instead of agonizing over the answers that are guaranteed to never come in any case.
The comic sags a bit once the obsession with the theme of 'logicians and madness' threatens to run away with it and obscure the real story. But, the precisely mad and inanely confident Side-Kick to our Super Hero (read Russell) comes traipsing into the story with perfect timing and livens up the story and thickens the plot into a right stew. With Wittgenstein thus in the mix, Russell gets comfy in being true to his character (destiny?) and takes us to the logical conclusion of the pursuit of Truth - to Philosophy.
Fittingly enough, the story concludes with the legendary closing scene of Oresteia, which perhaps makes the whole experience more profound than it really deserved to be, but then that is the fun of great ideas - you never know when they are only pretending!
r-r-rs
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Keith
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10 books
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April 1, 2020
EDIT, APRIL 2020: The original vitriolic review I wrote here used to get the occasional vitriolic response, and each time I read the review thereafter, it made me a little more uncomfortable. Not because I disagreed with the basic sentiment: I originally set out to say that I thought this book was pretentious, and that it used the comics medium rather cynically in order to market itself, without really demonstrating much understanding of what makes the medium really interesting and useful for storytelling.
I didn't actually write any of those things -- it was mostly just a series of cartoonishly over-the-top insults (and, somehow, it also included the phrase "ninja dinosaur boobs"). But 'pretentious and cynical' is totally what I meant.
The original review was written in 2009, when it seemed funny to me to sort of just yell at the internet and walk away without apologizing. For a variety of obvious reasons, I don't feel like I have the right to do that sort of thing anymore.
Over the years, I have had readers of the original review tell me I have the intelligence of an adolescent, that they are going to burn my house down, and that I should kill myself. This also used to seem kind of funny to me, because it seemed like an isolated set of responses and behaviors. Now it's 2020, and this is mostly just how we communicate with each other online, period. Again, I don't think I like that sort of thing anymore.
I do still feel like Logicomix was a cynical cash-grab attempting to capitalize on the boom of literati-approved graphic novels about ten years ago. At the time, I was very concerned about a trend I saw toward fairly uncritical reading practices on my Goodreads feed -- that if NPR or McSweeney's said a thing was good, then By God it Must Have Been. A lot of my anger toward this book was about that too.
Again, I'm not sure I really care anymore why people read comics, or why they read at all. I still sort of roll my eyes when people read crap books, or take Instagram pictures every time they read as if they deserve an award. But it feels more important that I just shut up and let people like what they like, and do what makes them happy. Being happy about anything these days without judgment or guilt seems like an endeavor unto itself.
But I still have trouble thinking about NPR without thinking about that Portlandia episode where they make fun of "This American Life," and I take some small joy in barely being able to remember when Logicomix was considered an important book.
"I was right!" I could scream uselessly into the Internet.
And the Internet would look back and me, and slowly blink, and say, "So?"
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Warwick
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May 21, 2017
‘Organic life, we are told, has developed gradually from the protozoan to the philosopher, and this development, we are assured, is indubitably an advance. Unfortunately it is the philosopher, not the protozoan, who gives us this assurance.’
—Bertrand Russell
‘Logic! Good gracious! What rubbish! How can I tell what I think till I see what I say?’
—EM Forster
Logicomix has the admirable idea of presenting us, in comic form, with the story of the search for the logical underpinnings of mathematics in the early twentieth century, told mostly through the life of Bertrand Russell.
Usually, when this story comes up at all, it seems to be told by way of a prelude to the birth of computing (in, for instance, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, which rushes past Russell to get to Turing), so it was nice here to see it placed front and centre. And on the whole, the details of these often quite abstruse theoretical investigations are very well explained here, embedded as they are in the context of the main players' personal lives and professional rivalries.
The set of all sets that do not contain themselves: Russell suddenly realises "Russell's paradox"
I really love Bertrand Russell for the way that his professional logicalism did not impede his towering moral authority – he embodied a pacifistic, anti-authoritarian activism that was awakened during the First World War and that lasted until the end of his life, when he was still being dragged away from protests by police in his eighties. This moral sensibility takes a backseat to the quest for logic in the book, though it's definitely there – a framing story concerns Russell's feelings about pacifism in the 1939 war, and within the main story the authors are careful to show the effects of the first war on all the major characters.
Wittgenstein has an existential epiphany in the trenches
I have to admit, with my ideal image of Russell in mind, it was painful for me to read about the way he behaved towards his first wife and his children, about which I knew nothing before I read this. The authors – as they themselves explain – are very concerned to make sure that this is a story about these mathematicians' and philosophers' private lives as well as their professional investigations. Though I have to admit, the drama in the forbidden relationships and family secrets never seemed quite as engaging to me as the actual nerdy stuff about logic.
Gödel drops the bombshell of his incompleteness theorem
I had lingering doubts as I read this of whether it was really suited to the comics form: somehow, it never really felt like it was playing to the strengths of the medium. I was also not convinced by the choice to include several metanarrational interludes in which the authors and illustrators talk about how best to tell the story; this seemed, on the whole, more of a distraction than anything else, although a final section set during a present-day production of the Oresteia is a tour-de-force.
The comic's authors walk around Athens
There's lots to get out of this book and I'd definitely recommend it, but in the end it's one of those pieces that I admired more for its concept than its execution. Illogical perhaps – but that, as the book demonstrates, is to be expected.
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Zaphiri
292 reviews
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March 2, 2018
I started Logicomix with the idea that I would read something very pleasant and easy to read that would flow easily after the huge (in every way, let's not repeat ourselves) 2666 by Bolaño. I fell in as far as the first part (of pleasure) but out as far as the issue of ease. Of course, because it is extremely well-written and has a very tasteful design, it flows quite quickly. However, it is not simple, at least if you are interested in understanding what it says beyond spending your time. It took me several days to finish it (for its size) and I read many parts more than once until I felt that I understood what I had read. Because okay, let's not kid ourselves, mathematics is not my strong point, let alone its theoretical foundation in logic.
The central axis of the work, then, is logic in the search for the foundations of mathematics. And the central figure in this quest is the beloved Bertrand Russell, who recounts how he experienced it through his work but also through his general experience in the field of Logic. Emphasis is also given to the logic-madness dipole: why do so many logicians go crazy? Is the dose of logic so great that it drives them to insanity? And finally, is mathematics the stable source of knowledge of objective truth and solid knowledge as we are taught in school? The answer is frightening: probably not. And then what? I don't know.
Very nice book. Really enjoyable. BRACE. 2018 A graphic novel or comic
Bonus the very interesting appendix at the end with material on the people, ideas and methods mentioned in the book as well as the bibliography, based on which the reader can search for other relevant sources on these very interesting issues.
brace2018
comic-books
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Eirini Proikaki
395 reviews
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July 3, 2017
A comic that mixes history, mathematics, logical thinking, philosophy and ancient tragedies. Very good work with excellent illustrations. Especially the frames with the Acropolis or ancient theaters as a background were simply amazing! I admit that I did not understand all the theories and reasonings that I read, but I found the book very interesting, written with humor and I was not bored for a moment.
graphic-novels
greek
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Kyriaki
486 reviews
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November 4, 2019
How much logic can a person withstand?
It wasn't easy and I don't swear that I understood everything. But because I like this logical-irrational topic, I found it incredibly interesting and it provided food for thought and material for later research.
History, philosophy, mathematics, ancient tragedy, the art of comics, but most of all a story of people who seek answers and seek the truth! I liked the light design, the colors that changed with the era, as well as the participation of the creators in the story they were telling us but at the same time trying to understand themselves.
With my limited knowledge of mathematics, I still enjoyed it very much!
comic
greek
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Richard Derus
4,338 reviews
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January 29, 2012
THIS IS NOT MY PERSONAL OPINION
IT IS THAT OF MY CLOSE FRIEND JOE
I suspect someone more familiar with the players and their theories would get even more out of this, but I definitely feel more kindly and receptive toward these eggheads, having seen through this their human sides and their passionate struggles to reach truth. Their integrity requires ruefully accepting it time and again when the newest genius tears down the fortress of truth each thought he had built. The constant questioning of principles and fervent desire to locate truth has been associated with "madness', and that comes up in this, too. The drawing is engaging and witty. The story concludes, satisfyingly in an unexpected way, with a performance of the Orestia. Kudos to the author for coming up with such a well-executed and thought-expanding book.
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Hesam
164 reviews
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October 7, 2016
Now, perhaps ten years have passed since that time - early in my undergraduate studies - when I realized that I was not as comfortable, as others, understanding and accepting the arguments I heard; neither those I heard and saw in the classroom of proof-oriented mathematical courses, nor even the claims and arguments I made around heated social discussions among my friends and peers. Well, at that time, a strong possibility for me was my low understanding and intelligence compared to those groups and individuals; something I do not claim otherwise even now! But the problem that existed and that I believed in and still believe in was my interest in knowing the details and the origin and source of a system, an argument, a theory, a claim, etc., and not only that, but I felt a strong need that when you get on the elevator in the building of an argument or theory or claim and press the button for the first floor, not only would you get somewhere! - and not have an endless and infinite journey! - but when you get there, you wouldn't realize that this building is built on air. Its foundation should be clear, explicit, and rational. Leaving aside the humiliating atmosphere of the relationship between my own intelligence and the average people of those classes and groups - often my own age! - I saw one of the ways to escape from that spiritual and mental atmosphere in reading logic ; A concern that was postponed for many years afterwards, perhaps because of that humiliating psychological atmosphere, perhaps out of fear of the difficulty of the path, perhaps out of laziness, or perhaps even out of fear that if, after setting out in pursuit of the song of truth, you were faced with the reality that this house was built on nothing, what should you do then?!
But all this was not an excuse for not going, because as Nader Ebrahimi said, "decay is the child of standing still."
My first experience of reading a comic was very, very sweet, and even sweeter than that was understanding that there have been and are other people in the world who, like me, would like to see the realities of existence based on a definite and rational truth!
Logic-and-mathematics
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