Reflections: The Magic, Music and Mathematics of Raymond Smullyan

by Raymond M. Smullyan

This is an exciting if not rambling account of events of Raymond Smullyan's four lives — as a mathematical logician, musician, magician, and author — together with thoughts that come to his mind as he recalls them. This book includes topics from some of Smullyan's twenty-six books, as well as many of his favorite anecdotes and jokes. It also presents some generalizations of theorems of the great logicians Gödel and Tarski, and discusses logic in general, and how he won his wife with a logic trick! Smullyan also relates some of his teaching experiences, and expresses his views on mathematical education, and how our present textbooks are primarily responsible for its decline! About his life as a pianist, Smullyan relates a good deal about his experiences with the Piano Society — a wonderful organization to which he is a staunch contributor, and how he has had such delightful relations with many of its members. Last but not least, Smullyan recounts how he has known some lovely ladies over the years.

Genres: Music, Mathematics

213 pages, Paperback

First published June 10, 2015

About the author

Raymond M. Smullyan was a logician, musician, Zen master, puzzle master, and writer.

Reviews

[Nauplius · Rating 5 out of 5]

💖💖💖 I'm in love. The raw power of filling a biography with random jokes, riddles, letters, copy-pasted forum posts and pages of puns. Smullyan is just fun.

[Maurizio Codogno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Io ho letto e apprezzato molti libri di Raymond Smullyan. Certo bisogna essere amanti della logica, anche perché altrimenti uno li trova ripetitivi, però alla fine si arriva a comprendere meglio come funzionano le tecniche standard per costruire brocardi e soriti; le ambientazioni sono sempre interessanti e anche i giochi di parole simpatici. Mi sono così avvicinato a questa sua pseudobiografia con curiosità, e nelle prime pagine sono anche stato soddisfatto. D'accordo, le divagazioni non mancavano, ma chi sono io per lamentarmi? Ma presto il libro ha preso una pessima piega, tra pagine di calembour che tanto non avrei mai potuto risolvere essendo storpiature di nomi inglesi e una sezione lunga almeno un quarto del totale che era la semplice trascrizione appena condensata della chat di un sito di musicisti dilettanti dove Smullyan a quanto pare fa la parte del padrone. Sono arrivato fino in fondo perché sono tignoso, ma non mi sento di consigliare il libro a nessuno.