Category Archives: Foundations of Mathematics

¿Shifting Paradigms? • 4

Re: Foundational Crisis? • Harvey Friedman 2014 Aug 22 Shock and surprise are relative to a prior state of belief.  The belief that mathematics reduces to logic, and that of a purely deductive sort from given axioms, seems to be … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Foundations of Mathematics, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Model Theory, Paradigms, Peirce, Programming, Proof Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

¿Shifting Paradigms? • 3

Re: What Is Good Mathematics? • Harvey Friedman 2014 Aug 17 Speaking of mathematics in the context of “general intellectual activity” brings to mind Raymond Wilder’s take on “mathematics as a cultural system”. I would like to keep that in … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Foundations of Mathematics, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Model Theory, Paradigms, Peirce, Programming, Proof Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Forest Primeval → Riffs & Rotes

Re: Shifting Paradigms? • (1) • (2) • (3) • (4) • (5) • (6) Prompted by the discussion of Catalan numbers on the Foundations Of Math List, I dug up a few pieces of early correspondence and later discussions … Continue reading

Posted in Algebra, Animata, Arithmetic, C.S. Peirce, Catalan Numbers, Combinatorics, Forest Primeval, Foundations of Mathematics, Gödel Numbers, Graph Theory, Group Theory, H.W. Gould, Integer Sequences, Logic, Martin Gardner, Mathematics, Neil Sloane, Number Theory, Paradigmata, Planted Plane Trees, Riffs and Rotes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

¿Shifting Paradigms? • 2

Re: Timothy Chow • Shifting Paradigms? 2014 Jul 31 I can’t remember when I first started playing with Gödel codings of graph-theoretic structures, which arose in logical and computational settings, but I remember being egged on in that direction by … Continue reading

Posted in Algebra, Arithmetic, Combinatorics, Foundations of Mathematics, Graph Theory, Group Theory, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Model Theory, Number Theory, Paradigms, Peirce, Programming, Proof Theory, Riffs and Rotes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

¿Shifting Paradigms? • 1

Re: Dana Scott • Shifting Paradigms? 2014 Jul 28 This is very interesting to me, but not all my posts make it to the list, so I will spend a few days reflecting on it and post a comment on … Continue reading

Posted in Foundations of Mathematics, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Model Theory, Paradigms, Peirce, Programming, Proof Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Infinite Uses → Finite Means

The idea that a language is based on a system of rules determining the interpretation of its infinitely many sentences is by no means novel.  Well over a century ago, it was expressed with reasonable clarity by Wilhelm von Humboldt in … Continue reading

Posted in Automata, Chomsky, Descartes, Finite Means, Formal Grammars, Formal Languages, Foundations of Mathematics, Infinite Use, Innate Ideas, Linguistics, Pigeonhole Principle, Recursion, Syntax, Wilhelm von Humboldt | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Constants, Inconstants, and Higher Order Propositions

A question arising on the Foundations Of Math List gives me an opportunity to introduce the subject of higher order propositions, which I think afford a better way to handle the situations of confusion, doubt, obscurity, uncertainty, and vagueness often … Continue reading

Posted in Foundations of Mathematics, Higher Order Propositions, Irving Anellis, Logic, Mathematics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

C.S. Peirce • Logic of Number (MS 229)

Selections from C.S. Peirce, [Logic of Number] (MS 229) I printed a paper on the Logic of Number in 1866, and it was not made up out of the first thoughts that came into my head about it, by any … Continue reading

Posted in Abduction, Abstraction, C.S. Peirce, Deduction, Foundations of Mathematics, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

C.S. Peirce • New Elements (Καινὰ Στοιχεῖα) • Comment 1

Re: Peirce List • (1) • (2) Re: C.S. Peirce • New Elements (Καινὰ Στοιχεῖα) • 1 Interest in the reading of Peirce’s “New Elements” appears to be flagging of late, so I thought I might spice things up by … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Foundations of Mathematics, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

C.S. Peirce • New Elements (Καινὰ Στοιχεῖα) • 1

Selections from C.S. Peirce, “New Elements (Καινὰ Στοιχεῖα)” Editors’ Headnote from The Essential Peirce, Volume 2 MS 517.  [First published in NEM 4:235–63.  This document was most probably written in early 1904, as a preface to an intended book on … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Foundations of Mathematics, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments