Co-Winner of the 2007 Shoenfield Prize, Association for Symbolic Logic "Fixing Frege fills a serious gap in the Frege's literature (always increasing but perhaps with an excessive attention paid to semantics and the philosophy of language) and should remain for a long time a necessary reference for scholars in the field."--Ignacio Angelelli, Review of Modern Logic
The great logician Gottlob Frege attempted to provide a purely logical foundation for mathematics. His system collapsed when Bertrand Russell discovered a contradiction in it. Thereafter, mathematicians and logicians, beginning with Russell himself, turned in other directions to look for a framework for modern abstract mathematics. Over the past couple of decades, however, logicians and philosophers have discovered that much more is salvageable from the rubble of Frege's system than had previously been assumed. A variety of repaired systems have been proposed, each a consistent theory permitting the development of a significant portion of mathematics. This book surveys the assortment of methods put forth for fixing Frege's system, in an attempt to determine just how much of mathematics can be reconstructed in each. John Burgess considers every proposed fix, each with its distinctive philosophical advantages and drawbacks. These systems range from those barely able to reconstruct the rudiments of arithmetic to those that go well beyond the generally accepted axioms of set theory into the speculative realm of large cardinals.
For the most part, Burgess finds that attempts to fix Frege do less than advertised to revive his system. This book will be the benchmark against which future analyses of the revival of Frege will be measured.
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Surveys the assortment of methods put forth for fixing Frege's system, in an attempt to determine just how much of mathematics can be reconstructed in each. This work considers every proposed fix, each with its distinctive philosophical advantages and drawbacks.
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Acknowledgments ix CHAPTER 1: Frege, Russell, and After 1 CHAPTER 2: Predicative Theories 86 CHAPTER 3: Impredicative Theories 146 Tables 215 Notes 227 References 241 Index 249
"This book is without match. I suspect that it will be used both as a general introduction to the subject and as a source on particular topics for years to come."—Kit Fine, New York University"I suspect that this will become a must-read among those working in the philosophy of mathematics and the foundations of mathematics. It will most certainly be a significant contribution to the field."—Stewart Shapiro, Ohio State University
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This book is without match. I suspect that it will be used both as a general introduction to the subject and as a source on particular topics for years to come. -- Kit Fine, New York University I suspect that this will become a must-read among those working in the philosophy of mathematics and the foundations of mathematics. It will most certainly be a significant contribution to the field. -- Stewart Shapiro, Ohio State University
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780691122311
Publisert
2005-07-25
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Vekt
454 gr
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
P, U, 06, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
272
Forfatter