6: What Numbers Need: Or, When Does 2 + 2 = 4?

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Introduction: Playing with Pebbles 1
4. 1: World War Crisis 23
5. 2: The Greeks: A Protohistory of Theory 51
6. 3: Plato, Aristotle, and the Future of Western Thought 75
7. 4: Monotheism’s Math Problem 97
8. 5: From Descartes to Kant: An Outrageously Succinct History of Philosophy 130
9. 6: What Numbers Need: Or, When Does 2 + 2 = 4? 155
10. 7: Physics (and Poetry): Willing Sameness and Difference 179
11. 8: Axioms of Desire: Economics and the Social Sciences 214
12. 9: Killing Time 248
13. 10: Ethical Conclusions 277
14. Acknowledgments 299
15. Notes 301
16. Bibliography 373
17. Index 407