Wittgenstein and the Turning Point in the Philosophy of Mathematics
Stuart G. Shanker, "Wittgenstein and the Turning Point in the Philosophy of Mathematics"
English | ISBN: 0887064833, 0415382866 | 2006 | 370 pages | PDF | 7 MB
English | ISBN: 0887064833, 0415382866 | 2006 | 370 pages | PDF | 7 MB
Shanker is rightly acknowledged as the successor to Crispin Wright, and in some ways advances the basis upon which Wittgenstein's immense body of work on Mathematics is to be interpreted and understood. Shanker has a deliberate and relatively understated style, but should not in any way be mistaken for being anything other than absolutely thorough and original. His work on the composition of proofs (The chapter titles "the perils of prose") is wonderfully constructed, as is the chapter on "consistency". Anyone who has struggled to understand Wittgenstein's life long focus on Infinity will be well rewarded with the scope of Shanker's analysis on "The Nature of Proof".
The book is equally useful for philosophers and mathematicians, and for anyone seeking a context in which the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century was so fertile and exciting a period in mathematics will enjoy and value Shanker's work.