of Piergiorgio Odifreddi
In Around the World in Eighty Days the French writer Jules Verne targeted a concept of travelling typical of an “English travel agency”: going around the globe as fast as possible, with no interest in what could be seen and trying to get back home as soon as possible. Not for the pleasure of travelling, but just to win a bet that would cost as much as the trip itself: a no-win game, where you only gain what you have already spent. In Giro del mondo in 80 pensieri (“Around the world in eighty thoughts”) Piergiorgio Odifreddi proposes an opposite concept: comfortably roaming in the continents of knowledge, focusing on what one chances upon, looking around for as long as possible. Just for the pure sake of understanding and learning, with no other concern than intellectual delight: a win-win game, where you gain everything you invested. The eight continents visited by Odifreddi are: Politics, Religion, History, Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Literature and Art. For each of them his album contains ten snapshots of subjects chosen randomly, but consistently observed from the point of view of a mathematic and a rationalist. Browse it on your own, to travel with him: enjoy the reading and have a nice trip!
PIERGIORGIO ODIFREDDI (1950) studied Mathematics in Italy, USA and USSR. He taught mathematical logic in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Turin and at Cornell University. He’s a contributor to the newspaper La Repubblica and Le Scienze (the Italian edition of Scientific American) and in the 2001 he won the Galileo award for the “popularization of science” [popular science writing]. His publications include the logic trilogy C’era una volta un paradosso, Il diavolo in cattedra (Einaudi, 2001 and 2003) and Le menzogne di Ulisse (Longanesi, 2004), the geometric trilogy C’è spazio per tutti, Una via di fuga e Abbasso Euclide! (Mondadori, 2010, 2011 and 2013), the biopraphic trilogy In principio era Darwin (Longanesi, 2009), Hai vinto, Galileo (Mondadori, 2009) and Sulle spalle di un gigante su Newton (Longanesi, 2014) and the volume co-written with Benedetto XVI Caro papa teologo, caro matematico ateo (Mondadori, 2013). The publisher Rizzoli published his works Come stanno le cose (2013) and Il museo dei numeri (2014).