The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men cover art

The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men

A Cultural History

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men

By: Paolo Zellini
Narrated by: Mark Elstob
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The complexity of mathematics - its abstract rules and obscure symbols - can seem very distant from the everyday. There are those things that are real and present, it is supposed, and then there are mathematical concepts: creations of our mind, mysterious tools for those unengaged with the world. Yet, from its most remote history and deepest purpose, mathematics has served not just as a way to understand and order, but also as a foundation for the reality it describes.

In this elegant book, mathematician and philosopher Paolo Zellini offers a brief cultural and intellectual history of mathematics, ranging widely from the paradoxes of ancient Greece to the sacred altars of India, from Mesopotamian calculus to our own contemporary obsession with algorithms. Masterful and illuminating, The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men transforms our understanding of mathematical thinking, showing that it is inextricably linked with the philosophical and the religious as well as the mundane - and, indeed, with our own very human experience of the universe.

©2020 Paolo Zellini (P)2020 Penguin Audio
History History & Philosophy Mathematics Philosophy Science

Listeners also enjoyed...

Against Method cover art
In Search of Divine Reality cover art
The Non-Existence of the Real World cover art
Essays in Science cover art
One World cover art
Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics that Will Be Able to Present Itself as a Science cover art
An Introduction to Metaphysics cover art
Time and Eternity cover art
Signposts to God cover art
On the Soul & Parva Naturalia cover art
Is God a Mathematician? cover art
Time and Free Will cover art
Language, Truth and Logic cover art
On the Nature of the Psyche cover art
Aquinas cover art
Ideas cover art
All stars
Most relevant
No part was fascinating. Formulas were stated again and again. Suffered through this audiobook. I should have trusted previous reviews.

Too simplistic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.