[lambdaxymox]

The Blind Spot: Lectures On Logic by Jean Yves-Girard

For context, Girard is a mathematical logician, philosopher, and co-discoverer of the type system System F (Haskell, ML, etc.). The book is a monograph on proof theory, and I was interested in learning more about affine and linear logic to deepen my understanding of Rust and other language ecosystems focused around the ability to explicitly model resources. However, along the way, I learned some other great things: (1) continental philosophy is deep and cool; (2) mathematical writing can be simultaneously rigorous, clear, and hilarious; and it reinforced (alongside Alain Connes's Noncommutative Geometry, and various French philosophers) (3) French academic writing is both frustratingly and delightfully idiosyncratic. Girard writes polemically about other aspects of knowledge, mathematics, etc., and there's heaps of dry humor and anecdotes throughout the book. It's a hard book to read even by pure mathematics standards--a topic not exactly known for being a brisk read--but it was worth it just for the side discoveries alone.

[ducharmdev]

I did a double take when I saw "continental philosophy." Usually I don't expect that to be mixed with math, since it's roots are more in the humanities.

How are exactly does continental philosophy factor into these other topics?

[lambdaxymox]

Jean Yves-Girard's thinking evolved from analytic philosophy to continental philosophy over the course of his life, and in this book in particular, some of his asides and polemics critique how we conceptualize truth, knowledge, and logic, and how other fields conceptualize that stuff, from a continental perspective. The fact that this kind of stuff turned up in a mathematical logic book of all places really struck me. It put me on a path to taking a more serious interest in the continental school, and reading more of it (currently chewing on Gilles Deleuze and Bruno Latour). It's a very unusual and difficult book, that led me to very different (compared to what I am used to, anyway) modes of thinking.

[ducharmdev]

That is quite fascinating - I was big into continental philosophy in college, especially Deleuze. I might have to check that out!

If you're interested in this stuff, I think you might enjoy Manuel DeLanda - he gives Deleuze a sort of analytic treatment. His book "A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity" takes a lot of ideas from A Thousand Plateaus, but makes them clearer and more accessible.

Another suggestion if interested in Deleuze, and more specifically A Thousand Plateaus: someone named Brent Adkins has a great companion for the work. Unless you have extensive experience with the thinkers & ideas referenced in ATP (e.g. Freud, Marx, Nietzsche), I found secondary sources very helpful for setting up context around certain terms and concepts.