An Unsolvable Problem of Elementary Number Theory

by Alonzo Church

$4,800 · Offered by Sophia Rare Books

First edition

Baltimore, Maryland: John Hopkins, 1936. First edition of the first proof that the Entscheidungsproblem ‘decision problem’ is unsolvable, published seven months before Alan Turing published his own independent proof in his paper ‘On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem.’ Church’s proof was via his ‘lambda-calculus’; Turing’s was via his ‘Turing machines.’

• Binding: Hardcover

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