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Hilbert’s Program: An Essay on Mathematical Instrumentalism

by M. Detlefsen
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Current price ₹7,345.00
Original price ₹11,299.00
Original price ₹11,299.00
Original price ₹11,299.00
(-35%)
₹7,345.00
Current price ₹7,345.00

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Book cover type: Hardcover
  • ISBN13: 9789027721518
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Springer
  • Publisher Imprint: Springer
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 200
  • Original Price: EUR 99.99
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 665 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): History & Philosophy

Hilbert's Program was founded on a concern for the phenomenon of paradox in mathematics. To Hilbert, the paradoxes, which are at once both absurd and irresistible, revealed a deep philosophical truth: namely, that there is a discrepancy between the laws accord- ing to which the mind of homo mathematicus works, and the laws governing objective mathematical fact. Mathematical epistemology is, therefore, to be seen as a struggle between a mind that naturally works in one way and a reality that works in another. Knowledge occurs when the two cooperate. Conceived in this way, there are two basic alternatives for mathematical epistemology: a skeptical position which maintains either that mind and reality seldom or never come to agreement, or that we have no very reliable way of telling when they do; and a non-skeptical position which holds that there is significant agree- ment between mind and reality, and that their potential discrepan- cies can be detected, avoided, and thus kept in check. Of these two, Hilbert clearly embraced the latter, and proposed a program designed to vindicate the epistemological riches represented by our natural, if non-literal, ways of thinking. Brouwer, on the other hand, opted for a position closer (in Hilbert's opinion) to that of the skeptic. Having decided that epistemological purity could come only through sacrifice, he turned his back on his classical heritage to accept a higher calling.

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