Author: L. Corry
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402027788
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 542
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Book Description
David Hilbert (1862-1943) was the most influential mathematician of the early twentieth century and, together with Henri Poincaré, the last mathematical universalist. His main known areas of research and influence were in pure mathematics (algebra, number theory, geometry, integral equations and analysis, logic and foundations), but he was also known to have some interest in physical topics. The latter, however, was traditionally conceived as comprising only sporadic incursions into a scientific domain which was essentially foreign to his mainstream of activity and in which he only made scattered, if important, contributions. Based on an extensive use of mainly unpublished archival sources, the present book presents a totally fresh and comprehensive picture of Hilbert’s intense, original, well-informed, and highly influential involvement with physics, that spanned his entire career and that constituted a truly main focus of interest in his scientific horizon. His program for axiomatizing physical theories provides the connecting link with his research in more purely mathematical fields, especially geometry, and a unifying point of view from which to understand his physical activities in general. In particular, the now famous dialogue and interaction between Hilbert and Einstein, leading to the formulation in 1915 of the generally covariant field-equations of gravitation, is adequately explored here within the natural context of Hilbert’s overall scientific world-view. This book will be of interest to historians of physics and of mathematics, to historically-minded physicists and mathematicians, and to philosophers of science.
Author: Paolo Mancosu
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191021997
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 631
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Book Description
Paolo Mancosu presents a series of innovative studies in the history and the philosophy of logic and mathematics in the first half of the twentieth century. The Adventure of Reason is divided into five main sections: history of logic (from Russell to Tarski); foundational issues (Hilbert's program, constructivity, Wittgenstein, Gödel); mathematics and phenomenology (Weyl, Becker, Mahnke); nominalism (Quine, Tarski); semantics (Tarski, Carnap, Neurath). Mancosu exploits extensive untapped archival sources to make available a wealth of new material that deepens in significant ways our understanding of these fascinating areas of modern intellectual history. At the same time, the book is a contribution to recent philosophical debates, in particular on the prospects for a successful nominalist reconstruction of mathematics, the nature of finitist intuition, the viability of alternative definitions of logical consequence, and the extent to which phenomenology can hope to account for the exact sciences.
Author: Michel Janssen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521828341
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 579
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Book Description
These fourteen essays by leading historians and philosophers of science introduce the reader to the work of Albert Einstein. Following an introduction that places Einstein's work in the context of his life and times, the essays explain his main contributions to physics in terms that are accessible to a general audience, including special and general relativity, quantum physics, statistical physics, and unified field theory. The closing essays explore the relation between Einstein's work and twentieth-century philosophy, as well as his political writings.
Author: Hermann Weyl
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486266931
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258
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Book Description
Original anthology features less-technical essays discussing logic, topology, abstract algebra, relativity theory, and the works of David Hilbert. Most have been long unavailable or previously unpublished in book form. 2012 edition.
Author: Helge Kragh
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191003344
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416
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Book Description
Throughout history, people have tried to construct 'theories of everything': highly ambitious attempts to understand nature in its totality. This account presents these theories in their historical contexts, from little-known hypotheses from the past to modern developments such as the theory of superstrings, the anthropic principle, and ideas of many universes, and uses them to problematize the limits of scientific knowledge. Do claims to theories of everything belong to science at all? Which are the epistemic standards on which an alleged scientific theory of the universe - or the multiverse - is to be judged? Such questions are currently being discussed by physicists and cosmologists, but rarely within a historical perspective. This book argues that these questions have a history and that knowledge of the historical development of 'higher speculations' may inform and qualify the current debate on the nature and limits of scientific explanation.
Author: Mary Domski
Publisher: Open Court Publishing
ISBN: 081269662X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 864
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Book Description
Addressing a wide range of topics, from Newton to Post-Kuhnian philosophy of science, these essays critically examine themes that have been central to the influential work of philosopher Michael Friedman. Special focus is given to Friedman's revealing study of both history of science and philosophy in his work on Kant, Newton, Einstein, and other major figures. This interaction of history and philosophy is the subject of the editors' "manifesto" and serves to both explain and promote the essential ties between two disciplines usually regarded as unrelated.
Author: David E. Rowe
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319678191
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 448
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Book Description
Historian David E. Rowe captures the rich tapestry of mathematical creativity in this collection of essays from the “Years Ago” column of The Mathematical Intelligencer. With topics ranging from ancient Greek mathematics to modern relativistic cosmology, this collection conveys the impetus and spirit of Rowe’s various and many-faceted contributions to the history of mathematics. Centered on the Göttingen mathematical tradition, these stories illuminate important facets of mathematical activity often overlooked in other accounts. Six sections place the essays in chronological and thematic order, beginning with new introductions that contextualize each section. The essays that follow recount episodes relating to the section’s overall theme. All of the essays in this collection, with the exception of two, appeared over the course of more than 30 years in The Mathematical Intelligencer. Based largely on archival and primary sources, these vignettes offer unusual insights into behind-the-scenes events. Taken together, they aim to show how Göttingen managed to attract an extraordinary array of talented individuals, several of whom contributed to the development of a new mathematical culture during the first decades of the twentieth century.
Author: Vincent F. Hendricks
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402051956
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 345
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Book Description
The main theme of this anthology is the unique interaction between mathematics, physics and philosophy during the beginning of the 20th century. In this book, ten renowned philosopher-historians probe insightfully into key conceptual questions of pre-quantum mathematical physics. The result is a diverse yet thematically focused compilation of first class papers on mathematics, physics and philosophy, and a source-book on the interaction between them.
Author: Jemma Lorenat
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
ISBN: 1470461064
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292
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Book Description
Max Dehn (1878?1952) is known to mathematicians today for his seminal contributions to geometry and topology?Dehn surgery, Dehn twists, the Dehn invariant, etc. He is also remembered as the first mathematician to solve one of Hilbert?s famous problems. However, Dehn's influence as a scholar and teacher extended far beyond his mathematics. Dehn also lived a remarkable life, described in this book in three phases. The first phase focuses on his early career as one of David Hilbert?s most gifted students. The second, after World War I, treats his time in Frankfurt where he led an intimate community of mathematicians in explorations of historical texts. The final phase, after 1938, concerns his flight from Nazi Germany to Scandinavia and eventually to the United States where, after various teaching experiences, the Dehns settled at iconic Black Mountain College. This book is a collection of essays written by mathematicians and historians of art and science. It treats Dehn?s mathematics and its influence, his journeys, and his remarkable engagement in history and the arts. A great deal of the information found in this book has never before been published.
Author: Mirja Hartimo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108997562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 419
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Book Description
Husserl and Mathematics explains the development of Husserl's phenomenological method in the context of his engagement in modern mathematics and its foundations. Drawing on his correspondence and other written sources, Mirja Hartimo details Husserl's knowledge of a wide range of perspectives on the foundations of mathematics, including those of Hilbert, Brouwer and Weyl, as well as his awareness of the new developments in the subject during the 1930s. Hartimo examines how Husserl's philosophical views responded to these changes, and offers a pluralistic and open-ended picture of Husserl's phenomenology of mathematics. Her study shows Husserl's phenomenology to be a method capable of both shedding light on and internally criticizing scientific practices and concepts.
