Paul Benacerraf, Hilary Putnam.
Philosophy of Mathematics: selected readings: 2nd edn.
CUP. 1987
The twentieth century has witnessed an unprecedented
“crisis in the foundations of mathematics,”
featuring a world famous paradox (Russell’s Paradox),
a challenge to “classical” mathematics from
a world-famous mathematician (the “mathematical intuitionism” of Brouwer),
a new foundational school (Hilbert’s Formalism),
and the profound incompleteness results of Kurt Godel.
In the same period, the cross-fertilization of mathematics and philosophy
resulted in a new sort of “mathematical philosophy,”
associated most notably (but in different ways)
with Bertrand Russell, W. V. Quine, and Godel himself,
and which remains at the focus of Anglo-Saxon philosophical discussion.
The present collection brings together in a convenient form
the seminal articles in the philosophy of mathematics by these and other major thinkers.
It is a substantially revised version of the edition first published in 1964
and includes a revised bibliography.
The volume will be welcomed as a major work of reference at this level in the field.