One Hundred Years of Russell ́s Paradox

One Hundred Years of Russell ́s Paradox PDF

Author: Godehard Link

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2008-08-22

Total Pages: 673

ISBN-13: 3110199688

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The papers collected in this volume represent the main body of research arising from the International Munich Centenary Conference in 2001, which commemorated the discovery of the famous Russell Paradox a hundred years ago. The 31 contributions and the introductory essay by the editor were (with two exceptions) all originally written for the volume. The volume serves a twofold purpose, historical and systematic. One focus is on Bertrand Russell's logic and logical philosophy, taking into account the rich sources of the Russell Archives, many of which have become available only recently. The second equally important aim is to present original research in the broad range of foundational studies that draws on both current conceptions and recent technical advances in the above-mentioned fields. The volume contributes therefore, to the well-established body of mathematical philosophy initiated to a large extent by Russell's work.

The Outer Limits of Reason

The Outer Limits of Reason PDF

Author: Noson S. Yanofsky

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2016-11-04

Total Pages: 419

ISBN-13: 026252984X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This exploration of the scientific limits of knowledge challenges our deep-seated beliefs about our universe, our rationality, and ourselves. “A must-read for anyone studying information science.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, this work studies what science, mathematics, and reason tell us cannot be revealed. In The Outer Limits of Reason, Noson Yanofsky considers what cannot be predicted, described, or known, and what will never be understood. He discusses the limitations of computers, physics, logic, and our own intuitions about the world—including our ideas about space, time, and motion, and the complex relationship between the knower and the known. Yanofsky describes simple tasks that would take computers trillions of centuries to complete and other problems that computers can never solve: • perfectly formed English sentences that make no sense • different levels of infinity • the bizarre world of the quantum • the relevance of relativity theory • the causes of chaos theory • math problems that cannot be solved by normal means • statements that are true but cannot be proven Moving from the concrete to the abstract, from problems of everyday language to straightforward philosophical questions to the formalities of physics and mathematics, Yanofsky demonstrates a myriad of unsolvable problems and paradoxes. Exploring the various limitations of our knowledge, he shows that many of these limitations have a similar pattern and that by investigating these patterns, we can better understand the structure and limitations of reason itself. Yanofsky even attempts to look beyond the borders of reason to see what, if anything, is out there.

The Principles of Mathematics

The Principles of Mathematics PDF

Author: Bertrand Russell

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 580

ISBN-13: 9780393314045

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Russell's classic The Principles of Mathematics sets forth his landmark thesis that mathematics and logic are identical--that what is commonly called mathematics is simply later deductions from logical premises.

A Brief History of the Paradox

A Brief History of the Paradox PDF

Author: Roy Sorensen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-12-04

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0190289317

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift? Can time have a beginning? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Riddles, paradoxes, conundrums--for millennia the human mind has found such knotty logical problems both perplexing and irresistible. Now Roy Sorensen offers the first narrative history of paradoxes, a fascinating and eye-opening account that extends from the ancient Greeks, through the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, and into the twentieth century. When Augustine asked what God was doing before He made the world, he was told: "Preparing hell for people who ask questions like that." A Brief History of the Paradox takes a close look at "questions like that" and the philosophers who have asked them, beginning with the folk riddles that inspired Anaximander to erect the first metaphysical system and ending with such thinkers as Lewis Carroll, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and W.V. Quine. Organized chronologically, the book is divided into twenty-four chapters, each of which pairs a philosopher with a major paradox, allowing for extended consideration and putting a human face on the strategies that have been taken toward these puzzles. Readers get to follow the minds of Zeno, Socrates, Aquinas, Ockham, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, and many other major philosophers deep inside the tangles of paradox, looking for, and sometimes finding, a way out. Filled with illuminating anecdotes and vividly written, A Brief History of the Paradox will appeal to anyone who finds trying to answer unanswerable questions a paradoxically pleasant endeavor.

Recursion Theory

Recursion Theory PDF

Author: Chi Tat Chong

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2015-08-17

Total Pages: 409

ISBN-13: 311038129X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This monograph presents recursion theory from a generalized point of view centered on the computational aspects of definability. A major theme is the study of the structures of degrees arising from two key notions of reducibility, the Turing degrees and the hyperdegrees, using techniques and ideas from recursion theory, hyperarithmetic theory, and descriptive set theory. The emphasis is on the interplay between recursion theory and set theory, anchored on the notion of definability. The monograph covers a number of fundamental results in hyperarithmetic theory as well as some recent results on the structure theory of Turing and hyperdegrees. It also features a chapter on the applications of these investigations to higher randomness.

Bertrand Russell and the Origins of the Set-theoretic ‘Paradoxes’

Bertrand Russell and the Origins of the Set-theoretic ‘Paradoxes’ PDF

Author: GARCIADIEGO

Publisher: Birkhäuser

Published: 2013-03-09

Total Pages: 286

ISBN-13: 3034874022

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Xll Russell's published works include more than sixty books, several unpublished manuscripts, many hundreds of articles, dozens of radio and TV interviews and films, covering a wide spectrum of knowledge. His writings embrace discussions and analysis of such diverse topics as social sciences, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy in general, religion, moral sciences, education, pacifism, natural sciences (including biology and physics), linguistics, statistics, probability, eco nomic theory, history, politics, international affairs and other topics. He corresponded with a large and diverse group of colleagues including both prominent and obscure figures in politics, the arts, humanities and scienc es. Russell's communication with his colleagues began in the late nine teenth century and was especially active through much of the twentieth century. In spite of being one of the most controversial public personali ties of his day (let us not forget that he went to prison twice, was dis missed from Cambridge University and was prevented from teaching at the College of the City of New York), his merits have been recognized and appreciated. He was awarded many medals, diplomas and honors, including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Perspectives on the History of Mathematical Logic

Perspectives on the History of Mathematical Logic PDF

Author: Thomas Drucker

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-01-04

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 0817647686

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This volume offers insights into the development of mathematical logic over the last century. Arising from a special session of the history of logic at an American Mathematical Society meeting, the chapters explore technical innovations, the philosophical consequences of work during the period, and the historical and social context in which the logicians worked. The discussions herein will appeal to mathematical logicians and historians of mathematics, as well as philosophers and historians of science.

Fixing Frege

Fixing Frege PDF

Author: John P. Burgess

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-06-05

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0691187061

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

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.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes