Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth

If not the most gripping graphic novel I've read, this is certainly on of the most intellectual. It tells a simplified and slightly dramatized life of Bertrand Russell, using the structure of a reflective lecture on logic's application to real life, given in the US in the early days of World War II when the debate about whether to enter the war was hot and heavy. Add yet another framing structure where the co-creators of the book debate the themes of logic and madness, and that Papadimitriou is invited to co-author because as a computer scientist he can explain exactly what Russell, Frege, Goedel, Hilbert, and the others were trying to do and whether they succeeded or not. As both a math major who focused on pure logic, and a computer show more scientist myself, I can't judge how well the explanation of theory works for others. For me, it felt sincere but incomplete, no pun intended.

Reommended. show less

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 show more 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. show less

"When logic congeals into all-encompassing and perfect-seeming theories, then it can actually become a very evil con trick! Wittgenstein has a point, you see: 'All the facts of science are not enough to understand the world's meaning.' But hear this, too: like many in this hall, I still try, and very hard, to remain a pacifist. Yet . . . The thought of Hitler and Stalin taking over Europe is too hard to bear."

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis is an "adventure in ideas" and surprisingly fun to read. Caro was right (no surprise there): it's great. Bertrand Russell, Alfred Whitehead, Wittgenstein, Godel, and others show up and mingle - lots of folks who I knew "of" but not a lot "about." The story is broadly set up show more around a lecture Russell, a previously active pacifist, is giving in the U.S. in 1939 as Hitler extends the reach of his power. It is attended by pacifists who want Russell to denounce the war and any participation in it by the U.S. Periodically, the graphic novel's creators appear with commentary and "our time" perspective. Russell tells a personal tale that takes you through his unusual upbringing and liberal lifestyle, while also giving you the evolution of the thinking of the greatest minds of the time. There is a lot about logic and the shaky foundations of mathematics and the search for mathematical truths we can rely on (it reminds me of the physicists' frustrating pursuit of a "theory of everything" to unify the general theory of relativity and quantum physics and everything else: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything), but it's surprisingly painless, and even engrossing. It also reminded me that I want to read more about Alan Turing and "Enigma" in WWII.

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. show less

Geometry showed me the only way toward reality: Reason. In it, I encountered for the first time the delicious experience of knowing something with total certainty. Proof thus became my Royal Road to Truth.

That dialogue is attributed to Bertrand Russell in this graphic-format, quasi-fictionalized* biography of the man -- particularly the math, history and philosophy of his quest for an adequate representation of reality and source of absolute truth, and his struggle to prove that his found source (logic) begets the answer to every question.

Geometry was the first math I loved and while I admit to hovering over the math here (and the philosophy) more than fully understanding it, it was fun to be hovering over Wittgenstein (and sad to be show more connecting math-greatness with mental illness) both here and in my concurrent reading of D.T. Max's biography of David Foster Wallace. I enjoyed the introduction to so many historical philosophers and I enjoyed the storytelling -- watching the authors and illustrators break the “fourth wall” of the story to address the reader directly or talk amongst themselves about math/philosophy and how to best present the material.

*The authors have gotten some grief for choosing to “select, reduce, simplify, interpret, and, very often, invent” Russell’s life to better tell this story, but for me it worked in their quest for the “truth” (i.e. vs. the “facts”). On the other hand, does embellishment contradict the concept of “proof”? show less

Logicomix is a genre-defying graphic novel, a metafictional (the authors insist on the logical term "self-referential") biography of the logician Bertrand Russell, bringing him face-to-face with other champions and challengers of logic in the first half of the 20th century--whether they really met or not. A recurrent conundrum presents the close relationship between madness and the discipline of logic, and putting Russell's account into a speech that he gave in the US in 1939 places the essential questions in the context of decisions about war and peace. A 21st-century frame story is set in Athens, thus alluding to the ancient foundations of logical thought, as well as the dramatic form of tragedy, to which author Doxiadis (but not show more Papadimitriou) refers Russell's saga.

As the authors are at pains to point out, this book is not a primer on logic in comic form, nor is it really about logic as such. It is about the people who are driven to pursue this line of inquiry, and the stresses and rewards involved with it. At the same time, the story can and should be inspirational to anyone who might want to look into the discipline. I was a little disappointed that the apparent dead-end of Gödel's incompleteness theorem was allowed to stand as a terminus of axiomatic logic as a whole, with only the algorithmic enterprises of Turing and Von Neumann as a coda. As a fan of G. Spencer-Brown's Laws of Form, I know that the trail didn't end there, and I would have relished some other pointers. But to give the authors their due, they did accomplish their stated goal to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end--even if the end was "incompleteness." (Contrast a story that was complete at endlessness.) And they did a good job of it too.

Considering how much of the story necessarily takes place in speech -- both to communicate abstractions, and because the two chief framing devices are conversation and lecture -- there is really a lot to look at in this book. The artists have rendered all of the historical figures and situations in a streamlined but serious style that amplifies all of the emotional coloration involved with the tale. The book reads amazingly quickly: it's a fat tome, but if you're a reader like me, it will be over far too quickly, forcing you to look for a dissimilar sequel in something like Gödel's Proof or Fuller's Critical Path. show less

I read this in the library today in about an hour and enjoyed it a lot. Although it deals with philosophical concepts that I had very little prior clue about, I find it very accessible and compelling. The art style is appealingly vivid and the layers of narrative work well. What I found especially effective was the contrast drawn between the heights of theory and abstraction and the mental and familial stability of those reaching them. The use of the Oresteia at the end was also excellent - I have a soft spot for Greek tragedy.

Now I feel better informed and less intimidated by Wittgenstein et al. If there are other graphic novels about philosophy, I'd be keen to read them.

This book was okay. It's a comic that straddles historical fiction and biography, providing the life story of Bertrand Russell as well as some background in developments of logic in the early twentieth century. It's occasionally interrupted by pages where the creators of the comic discuss creating the comic. These moments I found twee and not very insightful. The main story is fine, though not very deep, and I was irritated at the number of things the creators outright made up yet still ascribe character significance to-- the whole book is driven by a dichotomy between madness and logic in Russell's life that has no basis in reality.