1st Edition
Nominalism and Constructivism in Seventeenth-Century Mathematical Philosophy
By David Sepkoski
Copyright 2007
180 Pages
by
Routledge
180 Pages
by
Routledge
184 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
What was the basis for the adoption of mathematics as the primary mode of discourse for describing natural events by a large segment of the philosophical community in the seventeenth century?
In answering this question, this book demonstrates that a significant group of philosophers shared the belief that there is no necessary correspondence between external reality and objects of human... Read more
Acknowledgements; Chapter 1: Introduction - Mathematization and the ‘Language of Nature’; Chapter 2: Realists and Nominalists: Language and Mathematics before the Scientific Revolution; Chapter 3: Ontology Recapitulates Epistemology: Gassendi, Epicurean Atomism, and Nominalism; Chapter 4: British Empiricism, Nominalism, and Constructivism; Chapter 5: Three Mathematicians: Constructivist Epistemology and the New Mathematical Methods; Conclusion: Mathematization and the Nature of Language; Notes; References; Index
Biography
David Sepkoski is Assistant Professor of History at Oberlin College, USA.
