Philosophical Introduction to Set Theory

by Pollard, Stephen

• ISBN13: 9780486797144
• ISBN10: 0486797147
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2015-07-15
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

The primary mechanism for ideological and theoretical unification in modern mathematics, set theory forms an essential element of any comprehensive treatment of the philosophy of mathematics. This unique approach to set theory offers a technically informed discussion that covers a variety of philosophical issues. Rather than focusing on intuitionist and constructive alternatives to the Cantorian/Zermelian tradition, the author examines the two most important aspects of the current philosophy of mathematics, mathematical structuralism and mathematical applications of plural reference and plural quantification.
Clearly written and frequently cited in the mathematical literature, this book is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students of mathematics with some aptitude for mathematical reasoning and prior exposure to symbolic logic. Suitable as a source of supplementary readings in a course on set theory, it also functions as a primary text in a course on the philosophy of mathematics.

Author Biography

Stephen Pollard is Professor of Philosophy at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. In addition to A Mathematical Prelude to the Philosophy of Mathematics, he is co-translator of the Dover edition of Herman Weyl's The Continuum.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents:
Preface
I. Queen of the Formal Sciences
II. Offspring of Analysis
III. Commonsense Sets
IV. Logical Interlude: Interpretability
V. Formalism
VI. Some Mathematics
VII. Logical Interlude: Second Order Logic
VIII. Iterative Hierarchies
IX. Structuralism
Appendix I
Appendix II
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Names