New Waves in Philosophy of Mathematics

New Waves in Philosophy of Mathematics

Author: O. Bueno

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2009-09-29

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0230245196

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Thirteen promising young researchers write on what they take to be the right philosophical account of mathematics and discuss where the philosophy of mathematics ought to be going. New trends are revealed, such as an increasing attention to mathematical practice, a reassessment of the canon, and inspiration from philosophical logic.


Philosophy of Mathematics

Philosophy of Mathematics

Author: Øystein Linnebo

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-03-24

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 069120229X

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A sophisticated, original introduction to the philosophy of mathematics from one of its leading thinkers Mathematics is a model of precision and objectivity, but it appears distinct from the empirical sciences because it seems to deliver nonexperiential knowledge of a nonphysical reality of numbers, sets, and functions. How can these two aspects of mathematics be reconciled? This concise book provides a systematic, accessible introduction to the field that is trying to answer that question: the philosophy of mathematics. Øystein Linnebo, one of the world's leading scholars on the subject, introduces all of the classical approaches to the field as well as more specialized issues, including mathematical intuition, potential infinity, and the search for new mathematical axioms. Sophisticated but clear and approachable, this is an essential book for all students and teachers of philosophy and of mathematics.


New Waves in Philosophical Logic

New Waves in Philosophical Logic

Author: G. Restall

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-07-31

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1137003723

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Philosophical logic has been, and continues to be, a driving force behind much progress and development in philosophy more broadly. This collection by up-and-coming philosophical logicians deals with a broad range of topics, including, for example, proof-theory, probability, context-sensitivity, dialetheism and dynamic semantics.


New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics

New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics

Author: Thomas Tymoczko

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 1998-02

Total Pages: 458

ISBN-13: 9780691034980

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The traditional debate among philosophers of mathematics is whether there is an external mathematical reality, something out there to be discovered, or whether mathematics is the product of the human mind. This provocative book, now available in a revised and expanded paperback edition, goes beyond foundationalist questions to offer what has been called a "postmodern" assessment of the philosophy of mathematics--one that addresses issues of theoretical importance in terms of mathematical experience. By bringing together essays of leading philosophers, mathematicians, logicians, and computer scientists, Thomas Tymoczko reveals an evolving effort to account for the nature of mathematics in relation to other human activities. These accounts include such topics as the history of mathematics as a field of study, predictions about how computers will influence the future organization of mathematics, and what processes a proof undergoes before it reaches publishable form. This expanded edition now contains essays by Penelope Maddy, Michael D. Resnik, and William P. Thurston that address the nature of mathematical proofs. The editor has provided a new afterword and a supplemental bibliography of recent work.


The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice

The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice

Author: Paolo Mancosu

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2008-06-19

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 0191559091

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Contemporary philosophy of mathematics offers us an embarrassment of riches. Among the major areas of work one could list developments of the classical foundational programs, analytic approaches to epistemology and ontology of mathematics, and developments at the intersection of history and philosophy of mathematics. But anyone familiar with contemporary philosophy of mathematics will be aware of the need for new approaches that pay closer attention to mathematical practice. This book is the first attempt to give a coherent and unified presentation of this new wave of work in philosophy of mathematics. The new approach is innovative at least in two ways. First, it holds that there are important novel characteristics of contemporary mathematics that are just as worthy of philosophical attention as the distinction between constructive and non-constructive mathematics at the time of the foundational debates. Secondly, it holds that many topics which escape purely formal logical treatment - such as visualization, explanation, and understanding - can nonetheless be subjected to philosophical analysis. The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice comprises an introduction by the editor and eight chapters written by some of the leading scholars in the field. Each chapter consists of short introduction to the general topic of the chapter followed by a longer research article in the area. The eight topics selected represent a broad spectrum of contemporary philosophical reflection on different aspects of mathematical practice: diagrammatic reasoning and representation systems; visualization; mathematical explanation; purity of methods; mathematical concepts; the philosophical relevance of category theory; philosophical aspects of computer science in mathematics; the philosophical impact of recent developments in mathematical physics.


Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics

Synthetic Philosophy of Contemporary Mathematics

Author: Fernando Zalamea

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2012-09-01

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1913029328

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A panoramic survey of the vast spectrum of modern and contemporary mathematics and the new philosophical possibilities they suggest. A panoramic survey of the vast spectrum of modern and contemporary mathematics and the new philosophical possibilities they suggest, this book gives the inquisitive non-specialist an insight into the conceptual transformations and intellectual orientations of modern and contemporary mathematics. The predominant analytic approach, with its focus on the formal, the elementary and the foundational, has effectively divorced philosophy from the real practice of mathematics and the profound conceptual shifts in the discipline over the last century. The first part discusses the specificity of modern (1830–1950) and contemporary (1950 to the present) mathematics, and reviews the failure of mainstream philosophy of mathematics to address this specificity. Building on the work of the few exceptional thinkers to have engaged with the “real mathematics” of their era (including Lautman, Deleuze, Badiou, de Lorenzo and Châtelet), Zalamea challenges philosophy's self-imposed ignorance of the “making of mathematics.” In the second part, thirteen detailed case studies examine the greatest creators in the field, mapping the central advances accomplished in mathematics over the last half-century, exploring in vivid detail the characteristic creative gestures of modern master Grothendieck and contemporary creators including Lawvere, Shelah, Connes, and Freyd. Drawing on these concrete examples, and oriented by a unique philosophical constellation (Peirce, Lautman, Merleau-Ponty), in the third part Zalamea sets out the program for a sophisticated new epistemology, one that will avail itself of the powerful conceptual instruments forged by the mathematical mind, but which have until now remained largely neglected by philosophers.


From Logic to Practice

From Logic to Practice

Author: Gabriele Lolli

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-11-28

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 3319104349

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This book brings together young researchers from a variety of fields within mathematics, philosophy and logic. It discusses questions that arise in their work, as well as themes and reactions that appear to be similar in different contexts. The book shows that a fairly intensive activity in the philosophy of mathematics is underway, due on the one hand to the disillusionment with respect to traditional answers, on the other to exciting new features of present day mathematics. The book explains how the problem of applicability once again plays a central role in the development of mathematics. It examines how new languages different from the logical ones (mostly figural), are recognized as valid and experimented with and how unifying concepts (structure, category, set) are in competition for those who look at this form of unification. It further shows that traditional philosophies, such as constructivism, while still lively, are no longer only philosophies, but guidelines for research. Finally, the book demonstrates that the search for and validation of new axioms is analyzed with a blend of mathematical historical, philosophical, psychological considerations.


New Trends in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics

New Trends in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics

Author: Tinne Hoff Kjeldsen

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13:

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This book is a collection of papers presented at the conference New Trends in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics held at the University of Roskilde, Denmark, 6-8 August 1998. The purpose of the meeting was to present some of the new ideas on the study of mathematics, its character and the nature of its development. During the last decades work in history and philosophy of mathematics has led to several new original views on mathematics. Both new methods and angles of study have been introduced, and old views of, say, the nature of mathematical theories and proofs have been challenged. For instance, disciplines as etnohistorical studies of mathematics and the sociology of mathematics have resulted in several new insights, and classical historians of mathematics are also experimenting with new perspectives. In a similar way philosophy of mathematics has witnessed rather deep changes. Classical foundational studies have been challenged by new broader perspectives. The aim was to provide a forum within which historians of mathematics, philosophers, and mathematicians could exchange ideas and discuss different new approaches in the history and philosophy of mathematics. The book includes papers by Joan Richards, Henk J. M. Bos, Donald MacKenzie, Arthur Jaffe, Jody Azzouni and Paulus Gerdes. It also includes an extended introduction.


Why Is There Philosophy of Mathematics At All?

Why Is There Philosophy of Mathematics At All?

Author: Ian Hacking

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-01-30

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 1107729823

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This truly philosophical book takes us back to fundamentals - the sheer experience of proof, and the enigmatic relation of mathematics to nature. It asks unexpected questions, such as 'what makes mathematics mathematics?', 'where did proof come from and how did it evolve?', and 'how did the distinction between pure and applied mathematics come into being?' In a wide-ranging discussion that is both immersed in the past and unusually attuned to the competing philosophical ideas of contemporary mathematicians, it shows that proof and other forms of mathematical exploration continue to be living, evolving practices - responsive to new technologies, yet embedded in permanent (and astonishing) facts about human beings. It distinguishes several distinct types of application of mathematics, and shows how each leads to a different philosophical conundrum. Here is a remarkable body of new philosophical thinking about proofs, applications, and other mathematical activities.