Logic, Epistemology, and Scientific Theories - From Peano to the Vienna Circle


Book Description

This book provides a collection of chapters on the development of scientific philosophy and symbolic logic in the early twentieth century. The turn of the last century was a key transitional period for the development of symbolic logic and scientific philosophy. The Peano school, the editorial board of the Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, and the members of the Vienna Circle are generally mentioned as champions of this transformation of the role of logic in mathematics and in the sciences. The scholarship contained provides a rich historical and philosophical understanding of these groups and research areas. Specifically, the contributions focus on a detailed investigation of the relation between structuralism and modern mathematics. In addition, this book provides a closer understanding of the relation between symbolic logic and previous traditions such as syllogistics. This volume also informs the reader on the relation between logic, the history and didactics in the Peano School. This edition appeals to students and researchers working in the history of philosophy and of logic, philosophy of science, as well as to researchers on the Vienna Circle and the Peano School.




Peano


Book Description

All students of mathematics know of Peano's postulates for the natural numbers and his famous space-filling curve, yet their knowledge often stops there. Part of the reason is that there has not until now been a full-scale study of his life and works. This must surely be surprising, when one realizes the length of his academic career (over 50 years) and the extent of his publica tions (over 200) in a wide variety of fields, many of which had immediate and long-term effects on the development of modern mathematics. A study of his life seems long overdue. It appeared to me that the most likely person to write a biography of Peano would be his devoted disciple Ugo Cassina, with whom I studied at the University of Milan in 1957-58. I wrote to Professor Cassina on 29 October, 1963, inquiring if he planned to write the biography, and I offered him my assistance, since I hoped to return to Italy for a year. He replied on 28 November, 1963, suggesting that we collaborate, meaning by this that I would write the biography, in English, using his material and advice. I gladly agreed to this suggestion, but work on the project had hardly begun when Professor Cassina died unexpectedly on 5 October, 1964. I then decided to continue the project on my own. I spent the academic year 1966-67 in Turin; completion of the book took ten years.




Models of Peano Arithmetic


Book Description

Non-standard models of arithmetic are of interest to mathematicians through the presence of infinite integers and the various properties they inherit from the finite integers. Since their introduction in the 1930s, they have come to play an important role in model theory, and in combinatorics through independence results such as the Paris-Harrington theorem. This book is an introduction to these developments, and stresses the interplay between the first-order theory, recursion-theoretic aspects, and the structural properties of these models. Prerequisites for an understanding of the text have been kept to a minimum, these being a basic grounding in elementary model theory and a familiarity with the notions of recursive, primitive recursive, and r.e. sets. Consequently, the book is suitable for postgraduate students coming to the subject for the first time, and a number of exercises of varying degrees of difficulty will help to further the reader's understanding.




Giuseppe Peano between Mathematics and Logic


Book Description

This book contains the papers developing out the presentations given at the International Conference organized by the Torino Academy of Sciences and the Department of Mathematics Giuseppe Peano of the Torino University to celebrate the 150th anniversary of G. Peano's birth - one of the greatest figures in modern mathematics and logic and the most important mathematical logician in Italy - a century after the publication of Formulario Mathematico, a great attempt to systematise Mathematics in symbolic form.




Frege, Dedekind, and Peano on the Foundations of Arithmetic (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1982, this reissue contains a critical exposition of the views of Frege, Dedekind and Peano on the foundations of arithmetic. The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in the foundations of arithmetic. This work analyses both the reasons for this growth of interest within both mathematics and philosophy and the ways in which this study of the foundations of arithmetic led to new insights in philosophy and striking advances in logic. This historical-critical study provides an excellent introduction to the problems of the philosophy of mathematics - problems which have wide implications for philosophy as a whole. This reissue will appeal to students of both mathematics and philosophy who wish to improve their knowledge of logic.




The Structure of Models of Peano Arithmetic


Book Description

Aimed at graduate students, research logicians and mathematicians, this much-awaited text covers over 40 years of work on relative classification theory for nonstandard models of arithmetic. The book covers basic isomorphism invariants: families of type realized in a model, lattices of elementary substructures and automorphism groups.







Frege, Dedekind, and Peano on the Foundations of Arithmetic (Routledge Revivals)


Book Description

First published in 1982, this reissue contains a critical exposition of the views of Frege, Dedekind and Peano on the foundations of arithmetic. The last quarter of the 19th century witnessed a remarkable growth of interest in the foundations of arithmetic. This work analyses both the reasons for this growth of interest within both mathematics and philosophy and the ways in which this study of the foundations of arithmetic led to new insights in philosophy and striking advances in logic. This historical-critical study provides an excellent introduction to the problems of the philosophy of mathematics - problems which have wide implications for philosophy as a whole. This reissue will appeal to students of both mathematics and philosophy who wish to improve their knowledge of logic.




Gödel's Theorems and Zermelo's Axioms


Book Description

This book provides a concise and self-contained introduction to the foundations of mathematics. The first part covers the fundamental notions of mathematical logic, including logical axioms, formal proofs and the basics of model theory. Building on this, in the second and third part of the book the authors present detailed proofs of Gödel’s classical completeness and incompleteness theorems. In particular, the book includes a full proof of Gödel’s second incompleteness theorem which states that it is impossible to prove the consistency of arithmetic within its axioms. The final part is dedicated to an introduction into modern axiomatic set theory based on the Zermelo’s axioms, containing a presentation of Gödel’s constructible universe of sets. A recurring theme in the whole book consists of standard and non-standard models of several theories, such as Peano arithmetic, Presburger arithmetic and the real numbers. The book addresses undergraduate mathematics students and is suitable for a one or two semester introductory course into logic and set theory. Each chapter concludes with a list of exercises.




A Logical Approach to Discrete Math


Book Description

Here, the authors strive to change the way logic and discrete math are taught in computer science and mathematics: while many books treat logic simply as another topic of study, this one is unique in its willingness to go one step further. The book traets logic as a basic tool which may be applied in essentially every other area.