Humanizing Mathematics and its Philosophy: Essays Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Reuben Hersh

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Bharath Sriraman
Birkhäuser, Nov 7, 2017 - Mathematics - 363 pages
This Festschrift contains numerous colorful and eclectic essays from well-known mathematicians, philosophers, logicians, and linguists celebrating the 90th birthday of Reuben Hersh. The essays offer, in part, attempts to answer the following questions set forth by Reuben himself as a focus for this volume:
  • Can practicing mathematicians, as such, contribute anything to the philosophy of math? Can or should philosophers of math, as such, say anything to practicing mathematicians?

  • Twenty or fifty years from now, what will be similar, and what will, or could, or should be altogether different: About the philosophy of math? About math education? About math research institutions? About data processing and scientific computing?

The essays also offer glimpses into Reuben’s fertile mind and his lasting influence on the mathematical community, as well as revealing the diverse roots, obstacles and philosophical dispositions that characterize the working lives of mathematicians.
With contributions from a veritable “who’s who” list of 20th century luminaries from mathematics and philosophy, as well as from Reuben himself, this volume will appeal to a wide variety of readers from curious undergraduates to prominent mathematicians.

 

Contents

An Interview with Reuben Hersh
1
Nine Decades
11
Pluralism as Modeling and as Confusion
19
Now Has an Infinitesimal Positive Duration
30
Exploring the Three Worlds of Mathematics
39
Can You Say What Mathematics Is?
45
The Exact Sciences and NonEuclidean Logic
61
Xenomath
68
Can Something Just Happen to Be True?
167
Exploring the Impossibility of Automating Mathematical Understanding
173
Wittgenstein Mathematics and the Temporality of Technique
199
Gödels Legacy
214
Varieties of Maverick Philosophy of Mathematics
223
Does Reason Evolve? Does the Reasoning in Mathematics Evolve?
253
Mathematical Theories as Models
290
Mathematics for Makers and Mathematics for Users
309

Brains Internet and Civilizations
85
Kant Geometry and Number Theory
97
Do Mathematicians Have Responsibilities?
115
School Mathematics and Real Mathematics
124
What Is Mathematics and What Should It Be?
139
Humanism About Abstract Objects
150
Bézouts Theorem
328
A Gift to Teachers
347
A Nontechnical Assessment
350
Friends and Former Comrades
355
On the Nature of Mathematical Entities
360
Copyright

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About the author (2017)

Bharath Sriraman is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Montana

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