Lakatos Mathematics Science

John Kadvany; John Kadvany. Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason (Science and Cultural Theory). Duke University Press, 03/01/2001.
0822326493 M64 New Book. Pages Bright. Binding Tight. Slight Shelf Wear. Remainder Mark. Binding: Paperback ISBN13: 9780822326496 Size: 6 x 9.2 x 1.1 in. <p> Publisher Description: The Hungarian I©migrI© Imre Lakatos (1922–1974) earned a worldwide reputation through the influential philosophy of science debates involving Thomas Kuhn, Paul Feyerabend, and Sir Karl Popper. In Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason John Kadvany shows that embedded in Lakatos’s English-language work is a remarkable historical philosophy rooted in his Hungarian past. Below the surface of his life as an Anglo-American philosopher of science and mathematics, Lakatos covertly introduced novel transformations of Hegelian and Marxist ideas about historiography, skepticism, criticism, and rationality. Lakatos escaped Hungary following the failed 1956 Revolution. Before then, he had been an influential Communist intellectual and was imprisoned for years by the Stalinist regime. He also wrote a lost doctoral thesis in the philosophy of science and participated in what was criminal behavior in all but a legal sense. Kadvany argues that this intellectual and political past animates Lakatos’s English-language philosophy, and that, whether intended or not, Lakatos integrated a penetrating vision of Hegelian ideas with rigorous analysis of mathematical proofs and controversial histories of science. Including new applications of Lakatos’s ideas to the histories of mathematical logic and economics and providing lucid exegesis of many of Hegel’s basic ideas, Imre Lakatos and the Guises of Reason is an exciting reconstruction of ideas and episodes from the history of philosophy, science, mathematics, and modern political history..

Paperback, New.

[SW: 9780822326496\\\,0822326493\\\,Guises\\\,Reason\\\,Cultural\\\,Theory\\\,John\\\,Kadvany\\\,Social\\\,Aspects\\\,Mathematics\\\,Surveys\\\,Modern\\\,History\\\,European\\\,Studies\\\,Western\\\,from\\\,1900\\\,Philosophy\\\,Lakatos\\\,Imre\\\,Science\\\, ,]

Details

Hersh, Reuben: What Is Mathematics, Really? Oxford Oxford University Press 1999
ISBN: 0195130871 Very Good

xxiv, 343 pp., illus., biblio., index; 24 cm. Near fine. Tight, clean copy. Light edgewear to wraps. "Platonism is the most pervasive philosophy of mathematics. Indeed, it can be argued that an inarticulate, half-conscious Platonism is nearly universal among mathematicians. The basic idea is that mathematical entities exist outside space and time, outside thought and matter, in an abstract realm. In the more eloquent words of Edward Everett, a distinguished nineteenth-century American scholar, 'in pure mathematics we contemplate absolute truths which existed in the divine mind before the morning stars sang together, and which will continue to exist there when the last of their radiant host shall have fallen from heaven.' In What is Mathematics, Really?, renowned mathematician Rueben Hersh takes these eloquent words and this pervasive philosophy to task, in a subversive attack on traditional philosophies of mathematics, most notably, Platonism and formalism. Virtually all philosophers of mathematics treat it as isolated, timeless, ahistorical, inhuman. Hersh argues the contrary, that mathematics must be understood as a human activity, a social phenomenon, part of human culture, historically evolved, and intelligible only in a social context. Mathematical objects are created by humans, not arbitrarily, but from activity with existing mathematical objects, and from the needs of science and daily life. Hersh pulls the screen back to reveal mathematics as seen by professionals, debunking many mathematical myths, and demonstrating how the 'humanist' idea of the nature of mathematics more closely resembles how mathematicians actually work. At the heart of the book is a fascinating historical account of the mainstream of philosophy--ranging from Pythagoras, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, and Kant, to Bertrand Russell, David Hilbert, Rudolph Carnap, and Willard V.O. Quine--followed by the mavericks who saw mathematics as a human artifact, including Aristotle, Locke, Hume, Mill, Peirce, Dewey, and Lakatos. In his epilogue, Hersh reveals that this is no mere armchair debate, of little consequence to the outside world. He contends that Platonism and elitism fit well together, that Platonism in fact is used to justify the claim that 'some people just can't learn math.' The humanist philosophy, on the other hand, links mathematics with geople, with society, and with history. It fits with liberal anti-elitism and its historical striving for universal literacy, universal higher education, and universal access to knowledge and culture. Thus Hersh's argument has educational and political ramifications. Written by the co-author of The Mathematical Experience, which won the American Book Award in 1983, this volume reflects an insider's view of mathematical life, based on twenty years of doing research on advanced mathematical problems, thirty-five years of teaching graduates and undergraduates, and many long hours of listening, talking to, and reading philosophers. A clearly written and highly iconoclastic book, it is sure to be hotly debated by anyone with a passionate interest in mathematics or the philosophy of science. / Reuben Hersh taught at several distinguished colleges and universities around the country. Now retired, he resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico." - Publisher. 2nd printing Trade Paperback 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall

Details

LAKATOS, IMRE / WORRALL & CURRIE EDS: Philosophical Papers: Volume 2 Mathematics, science and epistemology, Cambridge University Press 1978 ISBN: 0521217695

Hardback Very Good/ In Very Good Dustwrapper 1st Edition Tight bright clean copy in untorn dustwrapper / All books in stock and available for immediate despatch from Hay-on-Wye in Wales - Normally 1-2 days working days for UK delivery, 3-5 days to Europe, 4-10 days USA & Canada & Australia / 295pp

Details

Lakatos, Imre (Hrsg.): The problem of inductive logic. Proceedings of the International Colloqium in the Philosophy of Science, London, 1965, Vol. 2. (Studies in Logic and Foundations of Mathematics) Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company, 1968,

417 pages; Orig.Leinen; Gr.8°; 840g; [Englisch]; Anstreichungen/Anmerkungen mit Bleistift / Notations underlinings with pencil; Schnitt beschmutzt

Details