The Art of Logic

by The Chicago Council on Science and Technology

For thousands of years, mathematicians have used the timeless art of logic to see the world more clearly. Today, truth is buried under soundbites, spin, memes, divisive arguments and "fake news". Seeing clearly is more important than ever. In this talk, Dr. Eugenia Cheng will show how anyone can think like a mathematician to understand what people are really telling us. Taking a careful scalpel to politics, privilege, sexism and dozens of other real-world situations, she will show that math is not just about numbers and equations, but is about thinking better, and that it can help us find clarity without losing nuance in this complex world of ours.

Featured Guests

Eugenia Cheng is a mathematician and concert pianist. She is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and won tenure at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has previously taught at the universities of Cambridge, Chicago and Nice and holds a PhD in pure mathematics from the University of Cambridge. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of "math phobia". Eugenia was an early pioneer of math on YouTube and her videos have been viewed around 15 million times to date. She has also assisted with mathematics in elementary, middle and high schools for 20 years. Her first popular math book "How to Bake Pi" was featured on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and "Beyond Infinity" was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize 2017. She also writes the Everyday Math column for the Wall Street Journal, and recently completely her first mathematical art commission, for Hotel EMC2 in Chicago. She is the founder of the Liederstube, an intimate oasis for art song based in Chicago. Her latest book, "The Art of Logic in an Illogical World" was released in July of 2018.

Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library

Cindy Pritzker Auditorium (lower level)

400 South State Street

Chicago, IL 60605 

Click here for complete details.