
Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
William Demopoulos(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 3. January 2013
Book
Hardback
281 pages
978-1-107-02980-4 (ISBN)
Description
The idea that mathematics is reducible to logic has a long history, but it was Frege who gave logicism an articulation and defense that transformed it into a distinctive philosophical thesis with a profound influence on the development of philosophy in the twentieth century. This volume of classic, revised and newly written essays by William Demopoulos examines logicism's principal legacy for philosophy: its elaboration of notions of analysis and reconstruction. The essays reflect on the deployment of these ideas by the principal figures in the history of the subject - Frege, Russell, Ramsey and Carnap - and in doing so illuminate current concerns about the nature of mathematical and theoretical knowledge. Issues addressed include the nature of arithmetical knowledge in the light of Frege's theorem; the status of realism about the theoretical entities of physics; and the proper interpretation of empirical theories that postulate abstract structural constraints.
Reviews / Votes
'As a philosophy major at the University of Western Ontario in 1995 I was fortunate enough to enroll in Demopoulos' history of analytic philosophy class ... The essays in this volume preserve the intensity and commitment to rigorous argumentation that I first encountered in that class twenty years ago. ... I look forward to Demopoulos' next contribution to these important debates.' Chris Pincock, The Journal of Bertrand Russell StudiesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
2 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
568 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-107-02980-4 (9781107029804)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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William Demopoulos
Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
Book
03/2015
Cambridge University Press
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William Demopoulos
Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
E-Book
01/2013
Cambridge University Press
€20.99
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William Demopoulos
Logicism and its Philosophical Legacy
E-Book
12/2012
1st Edition
Cambridge University Press
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Person
William Demopoulos is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Western Ontario. He has edited many volumes on foundational and philosophical issues arising in the sciences, including Physical Theory and its Interpretation (with Itamar Pitowsky, 2006) and Frege's Philosophy of Mathematics (1995).
Content
Preface; Introduction; 1. Frege's analysis of arithmetical knowledge; 2. Carnap's thesis, on extending 'empiricism, semantics and ontology' to the realism-instrumentalism controversy; 3. Carnap's analysis of realism; 4. Bertrand Russell's The Analysis of Matter: its historical context and contemporary interest with Michael Friedman; 5. On the rational reconstruction of our theoretical knowledge; 6. Three views of theoretical knowledge; 7. Frege and the rigorization of analysis; 8. The philosophical basis of our knowledge of number; 9. The 1910 Principia's theory of functions and classes; 10. Ramsey's extensional propositional functions.