Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics
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A01=Douglas M. Jesseph
abstraction
algebra
analyst
aristotle
arithmetic
Author_Douglas M. Jesseph
berkeley
calculus
Category=PBB
departed quantities
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
fluxions
formalism
geometry
history
indivisibles
infinites
jurin
leibniz
mathematics
new theory of vision
newton
nonfiction
numbers
philosophical commentaries
philosophy
practice
principles
proof
science
scientific revolution
walton
Product details
- ISBN 9780226398976
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 15 Sep 1993
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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In this first modern, critical assessment of the place of mathematics in Berkeley's philosophy and Berkeley's place in the history of mathematics, Douglas M. Jesseph provides a bold reinterpretation of Berkeley's work. Jesseph challenges the prevailing view that Berkeley's mathematical writings are peripheral to his philosophy and argues that mathematics is in fact central to his thought, developing out of his critique of abstraction. Jesseph's argument situates Berkeley's ideas within the larger historical and intellectual context of the Scientific Revolution. Jesseph begins with Berkeley's radical opposition to the received view of mathematics in the philosophy of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when mathematics was considered a "science of abstractions." Since this view seriously conflicted with Berkeley's critique of abstract ideas, Jesseph contends that he was forced to come up with a nonabstract philosophy of mathematics. Jesseph examines Berkeley's unique treatments of geometry and arithmetic and his famous critique of the calculus in The Analyst.
By putting Berkeley's mathematical writings in the perspective of his larger philosophical project and examining their impact on eighteenth-century British mathematics, Jesseph makes a major contribution to philosophy and to the history and philosophy of science.
