Are people ever rational? Consider this: You auction off a one-dollar bill to the highest bidder, but you set the rules so that the second highest bidder also has to pay the amount of his last bid, even though he gets nothing. Would people ever enter such an auction? Not only do they, but according to Martin Shubik, the game's inventor, the average winning bid (for a dollar, remember) is $3.40. Many winners report that they bid so high only because their opponent "went completely crazy." This game lies at the intersection of three subjects of eternal fascination: human psychology, morality, and John von Neumann's game theory. Hungarian game-theorist Laszlo Mero introduces us to the basics of game theory, including such concepts as zero-sum games, Prisoner's Dilemma and the origins of altruism; shows how game theory is applicable to fields ranging from physics to politics; and explores the role of rational thinking in the context of many different kinds of thinking. This fascinating, urbane book will interest everyone who wonders what mathematics can tell us about the human condition.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (1900 - 1958) were two of the greatest thinkers of modern times. Jung is the founder of Analytical Psychology and is one of the best known researchers in the field of Dream Interpretation and Symbolization. Pauli was one of the pioneers of Quantum Physics. In 1945, Pauli received the Nobel Prize in Physics after being nominated by Albert Einstein for his "decisive contribution through his discovery of a new law of Nature, the exclusion principle" involving spin theory underpinning the structure of matter and the whole of chemistry. Together they collaborated on this book that was First published in 1952 in German as Naturerklarung und Psyche. C. G. Jung: Synchronizitat als ein Prinzip akausaler Zusammenhange. W. Pauli: Der Einfluss archetypischer Vorstellungen auf die Bildung naturwissenschaftlicher Theorien bei Kepler. However, our reviewer, himself an eminent professor of mathematics, concludes, "After thoroughly studying their writings for many months now, I have come to see clearly that they are both utterly mad.""

In 1932, world-renowned physicist Wolfgang Pauli had already done the work that would win him the 1945 Nobel Prize. He was also suffering after a series of troubling personal events. He was drinking heavily, quarrelling frequently, and experiencing powerful, disturbing dreams. Pauli turned to C. G. Jung for help, forging an extraordinary intellectual conjunction not just between a physicist and a psychologist but between physics and psychology. As their acquaintance developed, Jung and Pauli discussed the nature of dreams and their relation to reality, finding surprising common ground between depth psychology and quantum physics and profoundly influencing each other's work. This portrait of an incredible friendship will fascinate readers interested in psychology, science, creativity, and genius.

In these essays Heinz von Foerster discusses some of the fundamental principles that govern how we know the world and how we process the information from which we derive that knowledge. Included are path- breaking articles concerning the principles of computation in neural nets (1967), the definition of self-organizing systems (1960), the nature of cognition (1970), as well as recent expansions on these themes (e.g. "How recursive is communication," 1993). Working with Norbert Wiener, Warren McCullough, and others in the 1960s and 1970s, von Foerster was one of the founders of the science of cybernetics, which has had profound effects both on modern systems theory and on the philosophy of cognition. At the Biological Computer Laboratory at the University of Illinois he produced the first parallel computers and contributed to many other developments in the theory of computation and cognition.

This book develops a consistent macroscopic theory of electromagnetism and discusses the relation between circuit theory and field theory. The theory is developed in successive steps from the Lorentz force, the integral form of Maxwell's equations in free space, and suitable macroscopic models of polarized and magnetized matter. Special features * Covers the electromagnetism of moving bodies and the process of electromechanical energy conversion * Introduces a power-series technique for analyzing quasi-static fields and quasi-stationary systems * Emphasizes the synthesis of fields as opposed to the analysis of fields * Presents, in an appendix, the four-dimensional relativistic formulation of macroscopic electrodynamics recently developed by one of the authors (L. J. Chu)

Drawing on more than thirty years' experience as a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Rubin shows the reader the heartrending and hope-filled stories of emotionally disturbed children as they struggle to make it through each day. To his two classic stories in the literature of psychology, Lisa and David and Jordi, Dr.. Rubin has now added Little Ralphie and the Creature. together they demonstrate the power of love and its ability to heal. Meet these four extraordinary young people as they search for a place and time in the world where is it safe to be themselves. David: Extremely intelligent, with extraordinary abilities in math, physics, and chess. He is passionately interested in clocks. he cannot bear to be touched, in petrified of germs and human contact. Suffers overwhelming panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Lisa: Schizophrenic who must constantly speak in singsong rhymes to avoid losing herself to Muriel--her moody, brooding, scowling, silent other self. Jordi: Schizophrenic, with autistic tendencies. He's afraid of garbage cans, all garbage cans, because he believes them to be ears. Ears that will hear him. Only his "jiggler"--a doorknob tied to a long string--can offer him an comfort or protection. Little Ralphie: Actue schizophrenic reaction--catatonic type. Ralphie hides in alternate realties to escape his unbearable pain.