Hao Wang (1921-1995) was one of the few confidants of the great                  mathematician and logician Kurt G?del. A Logical Journey is a continuation of Wang's                  Reflections on G?del and also elaborates on discussions contained in From                  Mathematics to Philosophy. A decade in preparation, it contains important and                  unfamiliar insights into G?del's views on a wide range of issues, from Platonism and                  the nature of logic, to minds and machines, the existence of God, and positivism and                  phenomenology.The impact of G?del's theorem on twentieth-century thought is on par                  with that of Einstein's theory of relativity, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, or                  Keynesian economics. These previously unpublished intimate and informal                  conversations, however, bring to light and amplify G?del's other major contributions                  to logic and philosophy. They reveal that there is much more in G?del's philosophy                  of mathematics than is commonly believed, and more in his philosophy than his                  philosophy of mathematics.Wang writes that "it is even possible that his quite                  informal and loosely structured conversations with me, which I am freely using in                  this book, will turn out to be the fullest existing expression of the diverse                  components of his inadequately articulated general philosophy."The first two                  chapters are devoted to G?del's life and mental development. In the chapters that                  follow, Wang illustrates the quest for overarching solutions and grand unifications                  of knowledge and action in G?del's written speculations on God and an afterlife. He                  gives the background and a chronological summary of the conversations, considers                  G?del's comments on philosophies and philosophers (his support of Husserl's                  phenomenology and his digressions on Kant and Wittgenstein), and his attempt to                  demonstrate the superiority of the mind's power over brains and machines. Three                  chapters are tied together by what Wang perceives to be G?del's governing ideal of                  philosophy: an exact theory in which mathematics and Newtonian physics serve as a                  model for philosophy or metaphysics. Finally, in an epilog Wang sketches his own                  approach to philosophy in contrast to his interpretation of G?del's                  outlook.

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