This book is based on two premises: one cannot understand philosophy of mathematics without understanding mathematics and one cannot understand mathematics without doing mathematics. It draws readers into philosophy of mathematics by having them do mathematics. It offers 298 exercises, covering philosophically important material, presented in a philosophically informed way. The exercises give readers opportunities to recreate some mathematics that will illuminate important readings in philosophy of mathematics. Topics include primitive recursive arithmetic, Peano arithmetic, Gödel's theorems, interpretability, the hierarchy of sets, Frege arithmetic and intuitionist sentential logic. The book is intended for readers who understand basic properties of the natural and real numbers and have some background in formal logic.

The year's finest writing on mathematics from around the world This annual anthology brings together the year's finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2015 makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else—and you don’t need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today’s hottest mathematical debates. Here David Hand explains why we should actually expect unlikely coincidences to happen; Arthur Benjamin and Ethan Brown unveil techniques for improvising custom-made magic number squares; Dana Mackenzie describes how mathematicians are making essential contributions to the development of synthetic biology; Steven Strogatz tells us why it’s worth writing about math for people who are alienated from it; Lisa Rougetet traces the earliest written descriptions of Nim, a popular game of mathematical strategy; Scott Aaronson looks at the unexpected implications of testing numbers for randomness; and much, much more. In addition to presenting the year’s most memorable writings on mathematics, this must-have anthology includes a bibliography of other notable writings and an introduction by the editor, Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us—and where it is headed.

The year's finest mathematics writing from around the world This annual anthology brings together the year’s finest mathematics writing from around the world. Featuring promising new voices alongside some of the foremost names in the field, The Best Writing on Mathematics 2017 makes available to a wide audience many articles not easily found anywhere else—and you don’t need to be a mathematician to enjoy them. These writings offer surprising insights into the nature, meaning, and practice of mathematics today. They delve into the history, philosophy, teaching, and everyday occurrences of math, and take readers behind the scenes of today’s hottest mathematical debates. Here Evelyn Lamb describes the excitement of searching for incomprehensibly large prime numbers, Jeremy Gray speculates about who would have won math’s highest prize—the Fields Medal—in the nineteenth century, and Philip Davis looks at mathematical results and artifacts from a business and marketing viewpoint. In other essays, Noson Yanofsky explores the inherent limits of knowledge in mathematical thinking, Jo Boaler and Lang Chen reveal why finger-counting enhances children’s receptivity to mathematical ideas, and Carlo Séquin and Raymond Shiau attempt to discover how the Renaissance painter Fra Luca Pacioli managed to convincingly depict his famous rhombicuboctahedron, a twenty-six-sided Archimedean solid. And there’s much, much more. In addition to presenting the year’s most memorable writings on mathematics, this must-have anthology includes a bibliography of other notable writings and an introduction by the editor, Mircea Pitici. This book belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in where math has taken us—and where it is headed.

The book Critical Mathematics Education provides Ole Skovsmose’s recent contribution to the further development of critical mathematics education. It gives examples of learning environments, which invite students to engage in investigative processes. It discusses how mathematics can be used for identifying cases of social injustice, and it shows how mathematics itself can become investigated critically. Critical Mathematics Education addresses issues with respect to racism, oppression, erosion of democracy, sustainability, formatting power of mathematics, and banality of mathematical expertise. It explores relationships between mathematics, ethics, crises, and critique. Ole Skovsmose has published what I might call his magnum opus, a 280-page synthesis and extension of his work simply called Critical Mathematics Education. In it he brings together his deep philosophical understanding and theorisation of mathematics itself, mathematics in society from a critical perspective, and mathematics in the teaching, learning and formation of students. For the mathematics education community, especially those concerned with social justice, philosophy, critical pedagogy and the nature of mathematics this is likely to be the publishing event of the year. In this book he offers something lacking in the literature, a philosophy of applied mathematics, as well as much more. Paul Ernest, Emeritus Professor, University of Exeter, UK

In this book a distinguished philosopher offers a comprehensive interpretation of Plato's most controversial dialogue. Treating the Republic as a unity and focusing on the dramatic form as the presentation of the argument, Stanley Rosen challenges earlier analyses of the Republic (including the ironic reading of Leo Strauss and his disciples) and argues that the key to understanding the dialogue is to grasp the author's intention in composing it, in particular whether Plato believed that the city constructed in the Republic is possible and desirable. Rosen demonstrates that the fundamental principles underlying the just city are theoretically attractive but that the attempt to enact them in practice leads to conceptual incoherence and political disaster. The Republic, says Rosen, is a vivid illustration of the irreconcilability of philosophy and political practice.

A hands-on introduction to the tools needed for rigorous and theoretical mathematical reasoning Successfully addressing the frustration many students experience as they make the transition from computational mathematics to advanced calculus and algebraic structures, Theorems, Corollaries, Lemmas, and Methods of Proof equips students with the tools needed to succeed while providing a firm foundation in the axiomatic structure of modern mathematics. This essential book: Clearly explains the relationship between definitions, conjectures, theorems, corollaries, lemmas, and proofs Reinforces the foundations of calculus and algebra Explores how to use both a direct and indirect proof to prove a theorem Presents the basic properties of real numbers/li> Discusses how to use mathematical induction to prove a theorem Identifies the different types of theorems Explains how to write a clear and understandable proof Covers the basic structure of modern mathematics and the key components of modern mathematics A complete chapter is dedicated to the different methods of proof such as forward direct proofs, proof by contrapositive, proof by contradiction, mathematical induction, and existence proofs. In addition, the author has supplied many clear and detailed algorithms that outline these proofs. Theorems, Corollaries, Lemmas, and Methods of Proof uniquely introduces scratch work as an indispensable part of the proof process, encouraging students to use scratch work and creative thinking as the first steps in their attempt to prove a theorem. Once their scratch work successfully demonstrates the truth of the theorem, the proof can be written in a clear and concise fashion. The basic structure of modern mathematics is discussed, and each of the key components of modern mathematics is defined. Numerous exercises are included in each chapter, covering a wide range of topics with varied levels of difficulty. Intended as a main text for mathematics courses such as Methods of Proof, Transitions to Advanced Mathematics, and Foundations of Mathematics, the book may also be used as a supplementary textbook in junior- and senior-level courses on advanced calculus, real analysis, and modern algebra.

Computer scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers discuss the conceptual foundations of the notion of computability as well as recent theoretical developments. In the 1930s a series of seminal works published by Alan Turing, Kurt Gödel, Alonzo Church, and others established the theoretical basis for computability. This work, advancing precise characterizations of effective, algorithmic computability, was the culmination of intensive investigations into the foundations of mathematics. In the decades since, the theory of computability has moved to the center of discussions in philosophy, computer science, and cognitive science. In this volume, distinguished computer scientists, mathematicians, logicians, and philosophers consider the conceptual foundations of computability in light of our modern understanding.Some chapters focus on the pioneering work by Turing, Gödel, and Church, including the Church-Turing thesis and Gödel's response to Church's and Turing's proposals. Other chapters cover more recent technical developments, including computability over the reals, Gödel's influence on mathematical logic and on recursion theory and the impact of work by Turing and Emil Post on our theoretical understanding of online and interactive computing; and others relate computability and complexity to issues in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of mathematics.ContributorsScott Aaronson, Dorit Aharonov, B. Jack Copeland, Martin Davis, Solomon Feferman, Saul Kripke, Carl J. Posy, Hilary Putnam, Oron Shagrir, Stewart Shapiro, Wilfried Sieg, Robert I. Soare, Umesh V. Vazirani

Scientists and other keen observers of the natural world sometimes make or write a statement pertaining to scientific activity that is destined to live on beyond the brief period of time for which it was intended. This book serves as a collection of these statements from great philosophers and thought–influencers of science, past and present. It allows the reader quickly to find relevant quotations or citations. Organized thematically and indexed alphabetically by author, this work makes readily available an unprecedented collection of approximately 18,000 quotations related to a broad range of scientific topics.

Le réseau « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » a pour objectif premier de fédérer les recherches sur les différents aspects, nuances et implications de la pensée du philosophe et algébriste britannique Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947). C'est dans ce cadre qu'ont été créés en 2002 à l'Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne des séminaires de recherche sur la philosophie organique whiteheadienne. L' « Annuaire de la philosophie en procès » publie les principaux résultats de ces travaux et offre complémentairement des études critiques et des comptes rendus récents dans les domaines whiteheadiens et connexes. The « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » network intends to bring together research on the different aspects, nuances and implications of Alfred North Whitehead's (1861-1947) thought. Since 2002, the network has fostered in Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne research seminars on his organic philosophy. The Chromatikon yearbook publishes the main results of this work and also offer critical studies and reviews in Whiteheadian and related fields. The Chromatikon yearbooks are complementary to the works published in ontos' « Chromatiques whiteheadiennes » and« Process Thought » series.