Philosophy of Mathematics
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Philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics.
Recurrent themes include:
- What are the sources of mathematical subject matter?
- What is the ontological status of mathematical entities?
- What does it mean to refer to a mathematical object?
- What is the character of a mathematical proposition?
- What is the relation between logic and mathematics?
- What is the role of hermeneutics in mathematics?
- What kinds of inquiry play a role in mathematics?
- What are the objectives of mathematical inquiry?
- What gives mathematics its hold on experience?
- What are the human traits behind mathematics?
- What is mathematical beauty?
- What is the source and nature of mathematical truth?
- What is the relationship between the abstract world of mathematics and the material universe?
- What is a number?
- Are mathematical proofs exercises in tautology?
- Why does it make sense to ask whether "1+1=2" is true?
- How do we know whether a mathematical proof is correct?
Read more about this topic: Philosophers Of Science, Philosophy of Particular Sciences
Famous quotes containing the words philosophy and/or mathematics:
“The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind—he had been so for such a long time—but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“It is a monstrous thing to force a child to learn Latin or Greek or mathematics on the ground that they are an indispensable gymnastic for the mental powers. It would be monstrous even if it were true.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)