Piergiorgio Odifreddi

Piergiorgio Odifreddi (born 13 July 1950, in Cuneo) is an Italian mathematician, logician, aficionado of the history of science, and popular science writer and essayist, especially on philosophical atheism as a member of the Italian Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics. He is philosophically and politically near to Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky.

Early life and education

Born in Cuneo in the Piedmont region, he received his ''Laurea'' ''cum laude'' in mathematics in Turin in 1973. He then specialized in the United States at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and UCLA from 1978 and 1980, and in the Soviet Union at Novosibirsk State University in 1982 and 1983.

Teaching career

From 1983 to 2007, he taught logic at the University of Turin, and from 1985 to 2003 he was visiting professor at Cornell University, where he collaborated with Anil Nerode, Richard Platek, and Richard Shore. From 2001 to 2003 he taught at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, which was founded by Luigi Maria Verzé.

He has been visiting professor at Monash University in Melbourne in 1988, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing in 1992 and 1995, Nanjing University in 1998, Buenos Aires University in 2001 and the Italian Academy at Columbia University in 2006.

His main field of research was computability theory, a branch of mathematical logic that studies the class of functions that can be calculated automatically. In this field he has published about thirty articles, and the two-volume book ''Classical Recursion Theory'' (North Holland Elsevier, 1989 and 1999), which has become a seminal text on the subject.

Writing

He has written editorials and books reviews for ''La rivista dei libri'' (the Italian edition of the New York Review of Books), is a regular contributor to ''Le Scienze'' (the Italian edition of Scientific American), and has also written for several newspapers such as ''La Repubblica'', '' La Stampa'' and the weekly ''L'Espresso''. The television stations ''Radio Tre'', ''RAI Due'' and ''RAI Tre'' have hosted many of his discussions on various scientific topics.

He has written many popular books about logic, mathematics, geometry and other scientific topics, usually ranging on a wide variety of topics, including phylosophy and literature.

He has also written several books on politics and against Christianity.

Political views

Odifreddi was heavily influenced by Bertrand Russell and Noam Chomsky. He repeatedly manifested his opposition to US policies, in particular against that of George W. Bush and Israel, as indicated in his writings ''Non siamo tutti americani'', ''La dannata Terra Santa'' and the controversial ''Intervista a Hitler'', in his book ''Il matematico impertinente''.

His views on Israel "immodestly inspired" by José Saramago and Noam Chomsky caused protests, which led to the deletion of an editorial he wrote in his blog at la Repubblica on November 2012, where he talked about the Israeli incursion in the Gaza Strip. In protest of the censorship, he decided to close his blog with a bitter post, eventually re-opening it years later.

Radio and television

Odifreddi had over 400 TV appearances in Italy, the most notable being:
* 2002 – ''Chi ha ucciso Fermat?'', directed by Vittorio Attamante – 20 episodes on Radio2 for ''Alle otto della sera''.
* 2004 – ''Vite da logico'', directed by Vittorio Attamante – 20 episodes on Radio2 for ''Alle otto della sera''.
* 2008 – ''In Cammino verso Santiago de Compostela'', with Sergio Valzania and Franco Cardini – 33 episodes on Radio3 for ''Il Cammino''.
* 2009 – ''A tutto Darwin'' – 5 episodes on Radio3 for Radio3 scienza, with interviews to Dario Fo.
* 2009 – ''Buon compleanno, Darwin!'', directed by Caterina Olivetti – 20 episodes on Radio2 for ''Alle otto della sera''.
* 2009 – ''A tutto Galileo'' – 5 episodes on Radio3 for Radio3 scienza, with interviews to Roberto Benigni and Riccardo Giacconi.

Other activities

Piergiorgio Odifreddi participated in the Stock Exchange of Visions project in 2007.

Honors

*1998 – Galileo Prize of the ''Italian Mathematical Union''.
*2002 – Peano Prize of Mathesis.
*2005 – Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Works

Academic writings

*''Classical recursion Theory'', North Holland – Elsevier, 1988, ; 2nd edn. 1992,
*''Classical recursion Theory. Volume II'', North Holland – Elsevier, 1999

Popular writings

*''Il Vangelo secondo la Scienza'', Einaudi, 1999, (The Gospel According to Science)
*''La matematica del Novecento'', prefazione di Gian-Carlo Rota, Einaudi, 2000, (The Mathematics of the 20th Century)
**''The Mathematical Century: The 30 greatest problems of the last 100 years'', translated by Arturo Sangalli, foreword by Freeman Dyson, 2004, Princeton University Press
*''Il computer di Dio'', Cortina, 2000, (God's Computer)
*''C'era una volta un paradosso'', Einaudi, 2001, (Once upon a time there was a paradox)
*''La repubblica dei numeri'', Cortina, 2002, (The Republic of Numbers)
*''Zichicche'', Dedalo, 2003,
*''Il diavolo in cattedra. La logica matematica da Aristotele a Kurt Gödel'', Einaudi, 2003, (The Devil in the Professor's Chair: Mathematical Logic from Aristotle to Kurt Goedel)
*''Divertimento geometrico – Da Euclide ad David Hilbert'', Bollati Boringhieri, 2003, (Geometric Diversions – From Euclid to Hilbert)
*''Le menzogne di Ulisse. L'avventura della logica da Parmenide ad Amartya Sen'', Longanesi, 2004, (Ulysses' Lies. The Adventure of Logic from Parmenides to Amartya Sen)
*''Il matematico impertinente'', Longanesi, 2005, (The Impertinent Mathematician)
*''Penna, pennello, bacchetta: le tre invidie del matematico'', Laterza, 2005, (Pen, brush, baton: the three envies of the mathematician)
*''Idee per diventare matematico'', Zanichelli, 2005, (Ideas for becoming a mathematician)
* ''Incontri con menti straordinarie'', Longanesi, 2006, (Meetings with extraordinary minds)
* ''Che cos'è la logica?'', Luca Sossella (ed.), 2006, (What is logic?)
* ''La scienza espresso: Note brevi, semibrevi e minime per una biblioteca scientifica universale'', Einaudi, 2006, (Science express)
*''Perché non-possiamo essere cristiani (e meno che mai cattolici)'', Longanesi, 2007, (Why we cannot be Christians (much less Catholics))
* ''In principio era Darwin. La vita, il pensiero, il dibattito sull'evoluzionismo'', Milano, Longanesi, 2009, ISBN 978-88-304-2683-2 (In principle it was Darwin. Life, thought and the debate about evolutionism)
* ''Hai vinto, Galileo! La vita, il pensiero, il dibattito su scienza e fede'', Milano, Mondadori, 2009, ISBN 978-88-04-59434-5 (You won, Galileo! Life, thought and the debate on science and faith)
* ''C'è spazio per tutti. Il grande racconto della geometria'', Milano, Mondadori, 2010. ISBN 978-88-04-60331-3 (There's space for everyone. The grand tale of geometry)

References

External links

Piergiorgio Odifreddi's Official Site (IT)Article by Odifreddi on Recursive Functions in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odifreddi, Piergiorgio
1950 births
Living people
People from Cuneo
Italian atheism activists
Cornell University faculty
Critics of Christianity
Italian science writers
Italian logicians
University of Turin faculty
20th-century atheists
21st-century atheists
Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic