Synthetic philosophy of contemporary mathematics / Fernando Zalamea ; translated by Zachary Luke Fraser

Zalamea, Fernando (1959-). Fraser, Zachary Luke [translator]

ISBN 10: 0956775012 / ISBN 13: 9780956775016

Published by Falmouth New York : Urbanomic ; Sequence Press, 2012

About this Item

Near fine copy in the original stiff-card wrappers; edges very slightly dust-dulled and toned. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description; 385 pages : illustrations ; 18 cm. Notes; "Originally published in Spanish as Filosofía sintética de las matemáticas contemporáneas, Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2009" -- back of title-page. Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects; Mathematics Philosophy. Genres; Bibliography. Illustrated. 1 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 288083

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Synthetic philosophy of contemporary mathematics / Fernando Zalamea ; translated by Zachary Luke Fraser
• Publisher: Falmouth New York : Urbanomic ; Sequence Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0956775012
• ISBN 13: 9780956775016
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: Review Copy.

About this title

Synopsis

A panoramic survey of the vast spectrum of modern and contemporary mathematics and the new philosophical possibilities they suggest.

A panoramic survey of the vast spectrum of modern and contemporary mathematics and the new philosophical possibilities they suggest, this book gives the inquisitive non-specialist an insight into the conceptual transformations and intellectual orientations of modern and contemporary mathematics.

The predominant analytic approach, with its focus on the formal, the elementary and the foundational, has effectively divorced philosophy from the real practice of mathematics and the profound conceptual shifts in the discipline over the last century. The first part discusses the specificity of modern (1830–1950) and contemporary (1950 to the present) mathematics, and reviews the failure of mainstream philosophy of mathematics to address this specificity. Building on the work of the few exceptional thinkers to have engaged with the “real mathematics” of their era (including Lautman, Deleuze, Badiou, de Lorenzo and Châtelet), Zalamea challenges philosophy's self-imposed ignorance of the “making of mathematics.”

In the second part, thirteen detailed case studies examine the greatest creators in the field, mapping the central advances accomplished in mathematics over the last half-century, exploring in vivid detail the characteristic creative gestures of modern master Grothendieck and contemporary creators including Lawvere, Shelah, Connes, and Freyd.

Drawing on these concrete examples, and oriented by a unique philosophical constellation (Peirce, Lautman, Merleau-Ponty), in the third part Zalamea sets out the program for a sophisticated new epistemology, one that will avail itself of the powerful conceptual instruments forged by the mathematical mind, but which have until now remained largely neglected by philosophers.

About the Author

Fernando Zalamea is Professor of Mathematics at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.