The Foundations of Mathematics

Author: Kenneth Kunen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781904987147
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
Mathematical logic grew out of philosophical questions regarding the foundations of mathematics, but logic has now outgrown its philosophical roots, and has become an integral part of mathematics in general. This book is designed for students who plan to specialize in logic, as well as for those who are interested in the applications of logic to other areas of mathematics. Used as a text, it could form the basis of a beginning graduate-level course. There are three main chapters: Set Theory, Model Theory, and Recursion Theory. The Set Theory chapter describes the set-theoretic foundations of all of mathematics, based on the ZFC axioms. It also covers technical results about the Axiom of Choice, well-orderings, and the theory of uncountable cardinals. The Model Theory chapter discusses predicate logic and formal proofs, and covers the Completeness, Compactness, and Lowenheim-Skolem Theorems, elementary submodels, model completeness, and applications to algebra. This chapter also continues the foundational issues begun in the set theory chapter. Mathematics can now be viewed as formal proofs from ZFC. Also, model theory leads to models of set theory. This includes a discussion of absoluteness, and an analysis of models such as H( ) and R( ). The Recursion Theory chapter develops some basic facts about computable functions, and uses them to prove a number of results of foundational importance; in particular, Church's theorem on the undecidability of logical consequence, the incompleteness theorems of Godel, and Tarski's theorem on the non-definability of truth.

The Logical Foundations of Mathematics

Author: William S. Hatcher
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 1483189635
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 331

Book Description
The Logical Foundations of Mathematics offers a study of the foundations of mathematics, stressing comparisons between and critical analyses of the major non-constructive foundational systems. The position of constructivism within the spectrum of foundational philosophies is discussed, along with the exact relationship between topos theory and set theory. Comprised of eight chapters, this book begins with an introduction to first-order logic. In particular, two complete systems of axioms and rules for the first-order predicate calculus are given, one for efficiency in proving metatheorems, and the other, in a "natural deduction" style, for presenting detailed formal proofs. A somewhat novel feature of this framework is a full semantic and syntactic treatment of variable-binding term operators as primitive symbols of logic. Subsequent chapters focus on the origin of modern foundational studies; Gottlob Frege's formal system intended to serve as a foundation for mathematics and its paradoxes; the theory of types; and the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory. David Hilbert's program and Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorems are also examined, along with the foundational systems of W. V. Quine and the relevance of categorical algebra for foundations. This monograph will be of interest to students, teachers, practitioners, and researchers in mathematics.

New Foundations in Mathematics

Author: Garret Sobczyk
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0817683852
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Book Description
The first book of its kind, New Foundations in Mathematics: The Geometric Concept of Number uses geometric algebra to present an innovative approach to elementary and advanced mathematics. Geometric algebra offers a simple and robust means of expressing a wide range of ideas in mathematics, physics, and engineering. In particular, geometric algebra extends the real number system to include the concept of direction, which underpins much of modern mathematics and physics. Much of the material presented has been developed from undergraduate courses taught by the author over the years in linear algebra, theory of numbers, advanced calculus and vector calculus, numerical analysis, modern abstract algebra, and differential geometry. The principal aim of this book is to present these ideas in a freshly coherent and accessible manner. New Foundations in Mathematics will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics and physics who are looking for a unified treatment of many important geometric ideas arising in these subjects at all levels. The material can also serve as a supplemental textbook in some or all of the areas mentioned above and as a reference book for professionals who apply mathematics to engineering and computational areas of mathematics and physics.

Conceptions of Set and the Foundations of Mathematics

Author: Luca Incurvati
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108497829
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
Presents a detailed and critical examination of the available conceptions of set and proposes a novel version.

Practical Foundations of Mathematics

Author: Paul Taylor
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521631075
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 590

Book Description
This book is about the basis of mathematical reasoning both in pure mathematics itself (particularly algebra and topology) and in computer science (how and what it means to prove correctness of programs). It contains original material and original developments of standard material, so it is also for professional researchers, but as it deliberately transcends disciplinary boundaries and challenges many established attitudes to the foundations of mathematics, the reader is expected to be open minded about these things.

Foundations of Constructive Mathematics

Author: M.J. Beeson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642689523
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 484

Book Description
This book is about some recent work in a subject usually considered part of "logic" and the" foundations of mathematics", but also having close connec tions with philosophy and computer science. Namely, the creation and study of "formal systems for constructive mathematics". The general organization of the book is described in the" User's Manual" which follows this introduction, and the contents of the book are described in more detail in the introductions to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. This introduction has a different purpose; it is intended to provide the reader with a general view of the subject. This requires, to begin with, an elucidation of both the concepts mentioned in the phrase, "formal systems for constructive mathematics". "Con structive mathematics" refers to mathematics in which, when you prove that l a thing exists (having certain desired properties) you show how to find it. Proof by contradiction is the most common way of proving something exists without showing how to find it - one assumes that nothing exists with the desired properties, and derives a contradiction. It was only in the last two decades of the nineteenth century that mathematicians began to exploit this method of proof in ways that nobody had previously done; that was partly made possible by the creation and development of set theory by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind.

Introduction to the Foundations of Mathematics

Author: Raymond L. Wilder
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486276201
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
Classic undergraduate text acquaints students with fundamental concepts and methods of mathematics. Topics include axiomatic method, set theory, infinite sets, groups, intuitionism, formal systems, mathematical logic, and much more. 1965 second edition.

The Foundations of Mathematics in the Theory of Sets

Author: John P. Mayberry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521770347
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 454

Book Description
This 2001 book will appeal to mathematicians and philosophers interested in the foundations of mathematics.

Cultural Foundations of Mathematics

Author: C. K. Raju
Publisher: Pearson Education India
ISBN: 9788131708712
Category : Calculus
Languages : en
Pages : 536

Book Description
The Volume Examines, In Depth, The Implications Of Indian History And Philosophy For Contemporary Mathematics And Science. The Conclusions Challenge Current Formal Mathematics And Its Basis In The Western Dogma That Deduction Is Infallible (Or That It Is Less Fallible Than Induction). The Development Of The Calculus In India, Over A Thousand Years, Is Exhaustively Documented In This Volume, Along With Novel Insights, And Is Related To The Key Sources Of Wealth-Monsoon-Dependent Agriculture And Navigation Required For Overseas Trade - And The Corresponding Requirement Of Timekeeping. Refecting The Usual Double Standard Of Evidence Used To Construct Eurocentric History, A Single, New Standard Of Evidence For Transmissions Is Proposed. Using This, It Is Pointed Out That Jesuits In Cochin, Following The Toledo Model Of Translation, Had Long-Term Opportunity To Transmit Indian Calculus Texts To Europe. The European Navigational Problem Of Determining Latitude, Longitude, And Loxodromes, And The 1582 Gregorian Calendar-Reform, Provided Ample Motivation. The Mathematics In These Earlier Indian Texts Suddenly Starts Appearing In European Works From The Mid-16Th Century Onwards, Providing Compelling Circumstantial Evidence. While The Calculus In India Had Valid Pramana, This Differed From Western Notions Of Proof, And The Indian (Algorismus) Notion Of Number Differed From The European (Abacus) Notion. Hence, Like Their Earlier Difficulties With The Algorismus, Europeans Had Difficulties In Understanding The Calculus, Which, Like Computer Technology, Enhanced The Ability To Calculate, Albeit In A Way Regarded As Epistemologically Insecure. Present-Day Difficulties In Learning Mathematics Are Related, Via Phylogeny Is Ontogeny , To These Historical Difficulties In Assimilating Imported Mathematics. An Appendix Takes Up Further Contemporary Implications Of The New Philosophy Of Mathematics For The Extension Of The Calculus, Which Is Needed To Handle The Infinities Arising In The Study Of Shock Waves And The Renormalization Problem Of Quantum Field Theory.

The Foundations of Mathematics

Author: Ian Stewart
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019870643X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 409

Book Description
The transition from school mathematics to university mathematics is seldom straightforward. Students are faced with a disconnect between the algorithmic and informal attitude to mathematics at school, versus a new emphasis on proof, based on logic, and a more abstract development of general concepts, based on set theory. The authors have many years' experience of the potential difficulties involved, through teaching first-year undergraduates and researching the ways in which students and mathematicians think. The book explains the motivation behind abstract foundational material based on students' experiences of school mathematics, and explicitly suggests ways students can make sense of formal ideas. This second edition takes a significant step forward by not only making the transition from intuitive to formal methods, but also by reversing the process- using structure theorems to prove that formal systems have visual and symbolic interpretations that enhance mathematical thinking. This is exemplified by a new chapter on the theory of groups. While the first edition extended counting to infinite cardinal numbers, the second also extends the real numbers rigorously to larger ordered fields. This links intuitive ideas in calculus to the formal epsilon-delta methods of analysis. The approach here is not the conventional one of 'nonstandard analysis', but a simpler, graphically based treatment which makes the notion of an infinitesimal natural and straightforward. This allows a further vision of the wider world of mathematical thinking in which formal definitions and proof lead to amazing new ways of defining, proving, visualising and symbolising mathematics beyond previous expectations.