Mathematical Thought and Its Objects

Charles Parsons

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:

2008

Number of Pages:

378

Format:

Hardcover

Price:

95.00

ISBN:

9780521452793

Category:

Monograph

MAA Review
Table of Contents

[Reviewed by

Dennis Lomas

, on

02/8/2011

]

This book requires training in philosophy of mathematics, and even then it is not easy going. Parsons’ discussion of the nature of intuition (pp. 152 ff.), notably its connection with perception and imagination, is of special interest.

Dennis Lomas has studied computer science, mathematics, and philosophy.

Preface; 1. Objects and logic; 2. Structuralism and nominalism; 3. Modality and structuralism; 4. A problem about sets; 5. Intuition; 6. Numbers as objects; 7. Intuitive arithmetic and its limits; 8. Mathematical induction; 9. Reason.

Tags:

Philosophy of Mathematics