Labyrinth of Thought: A History of Set Theory and Its Role in Modern Mathematics

by Jose Ferreiros

"José Ferreirós has written a magisterial account of the history of set theory which is panoramic, balanced, and engaging. Not only does this book synthesize much previous work and provide fresh insights and points of view, but it also features a major innovation, a full-fledged treatment of the emergence of the set-theoretic approach in mathematics from the early nineteenth century." --Bulletin of Symbolic Logic (Review of first edition)

Genres: Mathematics, History, Philosophy, Science, Logic

492 pages, Paperback

First published November 23, 1999

Reviews

[Ron Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

By elaborating the complex cross currents that fed into the development of set theory Ferreiros sheds much light on a subject that those of us who were raised on 'modern mathematics' take too much for granted. Quite a difficult read but very rewarding.