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100 1 $aEkeland, I.$q(Ivar),$d1944-
240 10 $aMeilleur des mondes possibles.$lEnglish
245 14 $aThe best of all possible worlds :$bmathematics and destiny /$cIvar Ekeland.
260 $aChicago :$bUniversity of Chicago Press,$c2006.
300 $a207 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 197-198) and index.
505 0 $aKeeping the beat -- The birth of modern science -- The least action principle -- From computations to geometry -- Poincare and beyond -- Pandora's box -- May the best one win -- The end of nature -- The common good -- A personal conclusion.
520 $aOptimists believe this is the best of all possible worlds. And pessimists fear that might really be the case. But what "is" the best of all possible worlds? How do we define it? Is it the world that operates the most efficiently? Or the one in which most people are comfortable and content? Questions such as these have preoccupied philosophers and theologians for ages, but there was a time, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when scientists and mathematicians felt they could provide the answer. This book is their story. Ivar Ekeland here takes the reader on a journey through scientific attempts to envision the best of all possible worlds. He begins with the French physicist Maupertuis, whose least action principle asserted that everything in nature occurs in the way that requires the least possible action. This idea, Ekeland shows, was a pivotal breakthrough in mathematics, because it was the first expression of the concept of "optimization," or the creation of systems that are the most efficient or functional. Although the least action principle was later elaborated on and overshadowed by the theories of Leonhard Euler and Gottfried Leibniz, the concept of optimization that emerged from it is an important one that touches virtually every scientific discipline today. Tracing the profound impact of optimization and the unexpected ways in which it has influenced the study of mathematics, biology, economics, and even politics, Ekeland reveals throughout how the idea of optimization has driven some of our greatest intellectual breakthroughs. The result is a dazzling display of erudition--one that will be essential reading for popular-science buffs and historians of science alike.
650 0 $aScience$xMathematics.
650 0 $aMathematical analysis.
650 0 $aLogic, Symbolic and mathematical.
650 0 $aHuman behavior.
650 0 $aEthics.
650 6 $aSciences$xMathe matiques
650 6 $aAnalyse mathe matique
650 6 $aLogique symbolique et mathe matique
650 6 $aComportement humain
650 6 $aMorale
650 7 $aEthics.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00915833
650 7 $aHuman behavior.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00962811
650 7 $aLogic, Symbolic and mathematical.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01002068
650 7 $aMathematical analysis.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01012068
650 7 $aScience$xMathematics.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01108310
650 7 $aDynamisches System$2gnd
650 7 $aGeistesgeschichte$2gnd
600 07 $aMathematik$2gnd
650 7 $aOptimierung$2gnd
650 7 $aPhilosophie$2gnd
650 7 $aWeltbild$2gnd
650 7 $aWissenschaftsphilosophie$2gnd
650 7 $aMathematik$xPhilosophie$yGeschichte Neuzeit.$2idsbb
650 7 $aPhilosophie$xMathematik$yGeschichte Neuzeit.$2idsbb
650 7 $aPrinzip der kleinsten Wirkung$yGeschichte.$2idsbb
650 7 $aOptimierung$yGeschichte.$2idsbb
650 07 $aMathematik.$2swd
648 4 $aGeschichte 1600-2000.
856 41 $3Table of contents$uhttp://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip067/2006001984.html
856 41 $3Table of contents$uhttp://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=015000843&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0702/2006001984-b.html
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0666/2006001984-b.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0702/2006001984-d.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0666/2006001984-d.html
856 42 $3The Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund Home Page$uhttp://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017.12/366197
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