---

Book description
What do the music of J. S. Bach, the basic forces of nature, Rubik's Cube, and the selection of mates have in common? They are all characterized by certain symmetries. Symmetry is the concept that bridges the gap between science and art, between the world of theoretical physics and the everyday world we see around us. Yet the "language" of symmetry--group theory in mathematics--emerged from a most unlikely source: an equation that couldn't be solved. Over the millennia, mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations until they came to what is known as the quintic equation. For several centuries it resisted solution, until two mathematical prodigies independently discovered that it could not be solved by the usual met... Rest of this review on the detail page
I want to add the first review for this book!
Reviews (1) and details of The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved: How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry

---

I want to add the first review for this book!
Reviews (0) and details of The American Telegrapher: A Social History, 1860-1900 (Class and Culture)

---

Book description
A drama of ideas as urgent and compelling as Copenhagen;a dance of personalities as colorful as in Wittgenstein's Poker.Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive philosopher known as an "atheist Jew," Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious young genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became obsessed with Spinoza's writings, wrote him clandestine letters, and ultimately called on Spinoza in person at his home in The Hague.Both men were at the center of the intense religious, political, and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. One was a hermit with many friends; the other, a socialite no one trusted. One believed in a God whom almost nobody thought divine... Rest of this review on the detail page
I want to add the first review for this book!
Reviews (1) and details of The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World

---

Book description
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory." Frankfurt, one of the world's most influential moral philosophers, attempts to build such a theory here. With his characteristic combination of philo... Rest of this review on the detail page
I want to add the first review for this book!
Reviews (1) and details of On Bullshit

---

Book description
While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to--and obtain absolution from--a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing.  But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal's questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides ... Rest of this review on the detail page
I want to add the first review for this book!
Reviews (1) and details of The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (Newly Expanded Paperback Edition)