Political Numeracy: Mathematical Perspectives on Our Chaotic ConstitutionW. W. Norton & Company, 2002 - 287 páginas From the impossibility of a perfectly democratic vote to a clarifying model for affirmative action debates, constitutional law professor and math enthusiast Michael Meyerson "provides an engaging and unusual perspective on the no-man's land between mathematics and the law" (John Allen Paulos). In thoroughly accessible and entertaining terms, Meyerson shows how the principle of probability influenced the outcomes of the O. J. Simpson trials; makes a convincing case for the mathematical virtues of the electoral college; uses game theory to explain the federal government's shifting balance of power; relates the concept of infinity to the heated abortion debate; and uses topology and chaos theory to explain how our Constitution has successfully survived social and political change. |
Índice
Acknowledgments | 9 |
Preface | 11 |
The Ugliest Number in the Constitution | 16 |
Logic Healthy and Ill | 23 |
Majority Rules | 48 |
The Positive Value of Consensus | 71 |
The First Veto | 82 |
What Does Equality Equal? | 91 |
Infinity and the Constitution | 148 |
The Incomplete Constitution | 162 |
Constitutional Chaos | 185 |
The Mathematics of Limits | 209 |
The Limits of Mathematics | 217 |
Notes | 223 |
Permissions | 277 |
279 | |
Outras edições - Ver tudo
Political Numeracy: Mathematical Perspectives on Our Chaotic Constitution Michael Meyerson Pré-visualização limitada - 2002 |
Palavras e frases frequentes
Referências a este livro
Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities Douglas Henton,John G. Melville,Kimberly A. Walesh Pré-visualização limitada - 2004 |
Achieving Quantitative Literacy: An Urgent Challenge for Higher Education Lynn Arthur Steen Pré-visualização limitada - 2004 |