Paradoxes of the Infinite (Routledge Revivals)

Paradoxes of the Infinite (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Bernard Bolzano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-03-18

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1317748573

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Paradoxes of the Infinite presents one of the most insightful, yet strangely unacknowledged, mathematical treatises of the 19th century: Dr Bernard Bolzano’s Paradoxien. This volume contains an adept translation of the work itself by Donald A. Steele S.J., and in addition an historical introduction, which includes a brief biography as well as an evaluation of Bolzano the mathematician, logician and physicist.

Hume's Philosophy of Belief (Routledge Revivals)

Hume's Philosophy of Belief (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Antony Flew

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-11-05

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1135087598

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First published in 1961, this book considers Hume’s request to be judged solely by the acknowledged works of his maturity. It focuses on Hume’s first Inquiry in its own right as a separate book to the likes of his other works, such as the Treatise and the Dialogues, which are here only used as supplementary evidence when necessary. This approach brings out, as Hume himself quite explicitly wished to do, the important bearing of his more technical philosophy on matters of religion and of world-outlook generally: "Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man."

From Mathematics to Philosophy (Routledge Revivals)

From Mathematics to Philosophy (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Hao Wang

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-06-10

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 1134884338

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First published in 1974. Despite the tendency of contemporary analytic philosophy to put logic and mathematics at a central position, the author argues it failed to appreciate or account for their rich content. Through discussions of such mathematical concepts as number, the continuum, set, proof and mechanical procedure, the author provides an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics and an internal criticism of the then current academic philosophy. The material presented is also an illustration of a new, more general method of approach called substantial factualism which the author asserts allows for the development of a more comprehensive philosophical position by not trivialising or distorting substantial facts of human knowledge.

Philosophical Investigations on Time, Space and the Continuum (Routledge Revivals)

Philosophical Investigations on Time, Space and the Continuum (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Franz Brentano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2009-10-15

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1135175853

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Franz Brentano is recognised as one of the most important philosophers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This work, first published in English in 1988, besides being an important contribution to metaphysics in its own right, has considerable historical importance through its influence on Husserl’s views on internal time consciousness. The work is preceded by a long introduction by Stephan Körner in collaboration with Brentano’s literary executor.

Infinity, Causation, and Paradox

Infinity, Causation, and Paradox PDF

Author: Alexander R. Pruss

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-07-26

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0192538284

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Infinity is paradoxical in many ways. Some paradoxes involve deterministic supertasks, such as Thomson's Lamp, where a switch is toggled an infinite number of times over a finite period of time, or the Grim Reaper, where it seems that infinitely many reapers can produce a result without doing anything. Others involve infinite lotteries. If you get two tickets from an infinite fair lottery where tickets are numbered from 1, no matter what number you saw on the first ticket, it is almost certain that the other ticket has a bigger number on it. And others center on paradoxical results in decision theory, such as the surprising observation that if you perform a sequence of fair coin flips that goes infinitely far back into the past but only finitely into the future, you can leverage information about past coin flips to predict future ones with only finitely many mistakes. Alexander R. Pruss examines this seemingly large family of paradoxes in Infinity, Causation and Paradox. He establishes that these paradoxes and numerous others all have a common structure: their most natural embodiment involves an infinite number of items causally impinging on a single output. These paradoxes, he argues, can all be resolved by embracing 'causal finitism', the view that it is impossible for a single output to have an infinite causal history. Throughout the book, Pruss exposits such paradoxes, defends causal finitism at length, and considers connections with the philosophy of physics (where causal finitism favors but does not require discretist theories of space and time) and the philosophy of religion (with a cosmological argument for a first cause).

Development Of Mathematics Between The World Wars, The: Case Studies, Examples And Analyses

Development Of Mathematics Between The World Wars, The: Case Studies, Examples And Analyses PDF

Author: Martina Becvarova

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2021-05-14

Total Pages: 623

ISBN-13: 1786349329

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The Development of Mathematics Between the World Wars traces the transformation of scientific life within mathematical communities during the interwar period in Central and Eastern Europe, specifically in Germany, Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Throughout the book, in-depth mathematical analyses and examples are included for the benefit of the reader.World War I heavily affected academic life. In European countries, many talented researchers and students were killed in action and scientific activities were halted to resume only in the postwar years. However, this inhibition turned out to be a catalyst for the birth of a new generation of mathematicians, for the emergence of new ideas and theories and for the surprising creation of new and outstanding scientific schools.The final four chapters are not restricted to Central and Eastern Europe and deal with the development of mathematics between World War I and World War II. After describing the general state of mathematics at the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th century, three case studies dealing with selected mathematical disciplines are presented (set theory, potential theory, combinatorics), in a way accessible to a broad audience of mathematicians as well as historians of mathematics.

Routledge Revivals: The Violence of Language (1990)

Routledge Revivals: The Violence of Language (1990) PDF

Author: Jean-Jacques Lecercle

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-09-19

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1315514672

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First published in 1990, this book argues that any theory of language constructs its ‘object’ by separating ‘relevant’ from ‘irrelevant’ phenomena — excluding the latter. This leaves a ‘remainder’ which consists of the untidy, creative part of how language is used — the essence of poetry and metaphor. Although this remainder can never be completely formalised, it must be fully recognised by any true account of language and thus this book attempts the first ‘theory of the remainder’. As such, whether it is language or the speaker who speaks is dealt with, leading to an analysis of how all speakers are ‘violently’ constrained in their use of language by social and psychological realties.

Encyclopedia of Cosmology (Routledge Revivals)

Encyclopedia of Cosmology (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Norriss S. Hetherington

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-08

Total Pages: 686

ISBN-13: 131767765X

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The Encyclopedia of Cosmology, first published in 1993, recounts the history, philosophical assumptions, methodological ambiguities, and human struggles that have influenced the various responses to the basic questions of cosmology through the ages, as well as referencing important scientific theories. Just as the recognition of social conventions in other cultures can lead to a more productive perspective on our own behaviour, so too a study of the cosmologies of other times and places can enable us recognise elements of our own cosmology that might otherwise pass as inevitable developments. Apart from modern natural science, therefore, this volume incorporates brief treatments of Native American, Cave-Dweller, Chinese, Egyptian, Islamic, Megalithic, Mesopotamian, Greek, Medieval and Copernican cosmology, leading to an appreciation of cosmology as an intellectual creation, not merely a collection of facts. It is a valuable reference tool for any student or academic with an interest in the history of science and cosmology specifically.