Philosophy: Philosophy of Science: Mathematics

Intuitionistic logic encompasses the principles of logical reasoning which were used by L. E. J. Brouwer in developing his intuitionistic mathematics, beginning in [1907]. Because these principles also underly Russian recursive analysis and the constructive analysis of E. Bishop and his followers, intuitionistic logic may be considered the logical basis of constructive mathematics. From the Stanford Encyclopedia.

From the fact that mathematics is indispensable to science, some philosophers have drawn serious metaphysical conclusions. In particular, Quine and Putnam have argued that the indispensability of mathematics to empirical science gives us good reason to believe in the existence of mathematical entities. From the Stanford Encyclopedia.

Constructive mathematics is distinguished from its traditional counterpart, classical mathematics, by the strict interpretation of the phrase `there exists' as `we can construct'. In order to work constructively, we need to re-interpret not only the existential quantifier but all the logical connectives and quantifiers as instructions on how to construct a proof of the statement involving these logical expressions. From the Stanford Encyclopedia.

Inconsistent mathematics is the study of the mathematical theories that result when classical mathematical axioms are asserted within the framework of a (non-classical) logic which can tolerate the presence of a contradiction without turning every sentence into a theorem. By Chris Mortensen, from the Stanford Encyclopedia.

Philosophical-historical survey of the development of geometry in the 19th century. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Roberto Toretti.

Article by Paul Ernest.

Based at School of Education, University of Exeter, United Kingdom, includes the text of back issues of the Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, and other papers on the philosophy of mathematics and related subjects.

Links to pages on individual philosophers.

Research topics include mathematical models and theories in the empirical sciences, models and theories in mathematics, category theory, and the use of mathematical structures in theoretical computer science. Bibliographic data.

A paper by Harold Ravitch, Los Angeles Valley College.

By Richard Stefanik (Washington: MSG Press,1994).

An enlarged paradigm of mathematical reality that includes psychology as an integral component.

In 1921, David Hilbert made a proposal for a formalist foundation of mathematics, for which a finitary consistency proof should establish the security of mathematics. From the Stanford Encyclopedia, by Richard Zach.

Online article by Volker Peckhaus.

Notes by R.B. Jones of foundations, problems, logicism and philosophers of mathematics.