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Reductions of Mathematics: Foundation or Horizon?

  • Felix Mühlhölzer
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Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics

Abstract

The usual reductions of large parts of mathematics to much more restricted parts, with the reduction to set theory as a sort of paradigm, are virtually uncontroversial from a purely mathematical point of view. But what is their point? According to the standard answer, they are important because they provide foundations for mathematics. What that precisely means, however, can be explained and also be criticised in quite different ways. There is a Wittgensteinian way of criticism that proves to be particularly instructive and that is summed up in the following beautiful passage in (RFM VII, §16): “The mathematical problems of the so-called foundations are no more at the basis of mathematics for us than the painted rock is the support of a painted castle.” There is another answer given by Bourbaki: such a reduction provides an horizon for mathematics. This is a totally different idea from the idea of a foundation. The horizon of mathematics is understood as a perfect formalization that lies in front of us and that guides us, but it is not beneath us like a foundation, i.e. a sort of rock that supports the edifice of mathematics. However, Claude Chevalley, the Bourbakist who had actually developed this idea, later discarded it, and his criticism is in line with a Wittgensteinian perspective. So the question remains: what is the real point of the reductions?

Abstract

The usual reductions of large parts of mathematics to much more restricted parts, with the reduction to set theory as a sort of paradigm, are virtually uncontroversial from a purely mathematical point of view. But what is their point? According to the standard answer, they are important because they provide foundations for mathematics. What that precisely means, however, can be explained and also be criticised in quite different ways. There is a Wittgensteinian way of criticism that proves to be particularly instructive and that is summed up in the following beautiful passage in (RFM VII, §16): “The mathematical problems of the so-called foundations are no more at the basis of mathematics for us than the painted rock is the support of a painted castle.” There is another answer given by Bourbaki: such a reduction provides an horizon for mathematics. This is a totally different idea from the idea of a foundation. The horizon of mathematics is understood as a perfect formalization that lies in front of us and that guides us, but it is not beneath us like a foundation, i.e. a sort of rock that supports the edifice of mathematics. However, Claude Chevalley, the Bourbakist who had actually developed this idea, later discarded it, and his criticism is in line with a Wittgensteinian perspective. So the question remains: what is the real point of the reductions?

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Preface IX
  4. Part I: Philosophy of Logic
  5. Link’s Revenge: A Case Study in Natural Language Mereology 3
  6. Universal Translatability: An Optimality- Based Justification of (Classical) Logic 37
  7. Invariance and Necessity 55
  8. Translations Between Logics: A Survey 71
  9. On the Relation of Logic to Metalogic 91
  10. Free Logic and the Quantified Argument Calculus 105
  11. Dependencies Between Quantifiers Vs. Dependencies Between Variables 117
  12. Three Types and Traditions of Logic: Syllogistic, Calculus and Predicate Logic 133
  13. Truth, Paradox, and the Procedural Conception of Fregean Sense 153
  14. Wittgenstein and Frege on Assertion 169
  15. Assertions and Their Justification: Demonstration and Self-Evidence 183
  16. Surprises in Logic: When Dynamic Formality Meets Interactive Compositionality 197
  17. Part II: Philosophy of Mathematics
  18. Neologicist Foundations: Inconsistent Abstraction Principles and Part-Whole 215
  19. What Hilbert and Bernays Meant by “Finitism” 249
  20. Wittgenstein and Turing 263
  21. Remarks on Two Papers of Paul Bernays 297
  22. The Significance of the Curry-Howard Isomorphism 313
  23. Reductions of Mathematics: Foundation or Horizon? 327
  24. What Are the Axioms for Numbers and Who Invented Them? 343
  25. Part III: Wittgenstein
  26. Following a Rule: Waismann’s Variation 359
  27. Propositions in Wittgenstein and Ramsey 375
  28. An Unexpected Feature of Classical Propositional Logic in the Tractatus 385
  29. Ontology in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: A Topological Approach 397
  30. Adding 4.0241 to TLP 415
  31. Understanding Wittgenstein’s Wood Sellers 429
  32. On the Infinite, In-Potentia: Discovery of the Hidden Revision of Philosophical Investigations and Its Relation to TS 209 Through the Eyes of Wittgensteinian Mathematics 441
  33. Incomplete Pictures and Specific Forms: Wittgenstein Around 1930 457
  34. „Man kann die Menschen nicht zum Guten führen“ – Zur Logik des moralischen Urteils bei Wittgenstein und Hegel 473
  35. Der Status mathematischer und religiöser Sätze bei Wittgenstein 485
  36. Gutes Sehen 499
  37. Wittgenstein’s Conjecture 515
  38. Index of Names 535
  39. Index of Subjects 539
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110657883-019

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Preface IX
  4. Part I: Philosophy of Logic
  5. Link’s Revenge: A Case Study in Natural Language Mereology 3
  6. Universal Translatability: An Optimality- Based Justification of (Classical) Logic 37
  7. Invariance and Necessity 55
  8. Translations Between Logics: A Survey 71
  9. On the Relation of Logic to Metalogic 91
  10. Free Logic and the Quantified Argument Calculus 105
  11. Dependencies Between Quantifiers Vs. Dependencies Between Variables 117
  12. Three Types and Traditions of Logic: Syllogistic, Calculus and Predicate Logic 133
  13. Truth, Paradox, and the Procedural Conception of Fregean Sense 153
  14. Wittgenstein and Frege on Assertion 169
  15. Assertions and Their Justification: Demonstration and Self-Evidence 183
  16. Surprises in Logic: When Dynamic Formality Meets Interactive Compositionality 197
  17. Part II: Philosophy of Mathematics
  18. Neologicist Foundations: Inconsistent Abstraction Principles and Part-Whole 215
  19. What Hilbert and Bernays Meant by “Finitism” 249
  20. Wittgenstein and Turing 263
  21. Remarks on Two Papers of Paul Bernays 297
  22. The Significance of the Curry-Howard Isomorphism 313
  23. Reductions of Mathematics: Foundation or Horizon? 327
  24. What Are the Axioms for Numbers and Who Invented Them? 343
  25. Part III: Wittgenstein
  26. Following a Rule: Waismann’s Variation 359
  27. Propositions in Wittgenstein and Ramsey 375
  28. An Unexpected Feature of Classical Propositional Logic in the Tractatus 385
  29. Ontology in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: A Topological Approach 397
  30. Adding 4.0241 to TLP 415
  31. Understanding Wittgenstein’s Wood Sellers 429
  32. On the Infinite, In-Potentia: Discovery of the Hidden Revision of Philosophical Investigations and Its Relation to TS 209 Through the Eyes of Wittgensteinian Mathematics 441
  33. Incomplete Pictures and Specific Forms: Wittgenstein Around 1930 457
  34. „Man kann die Menschen nicht zum Guten führen“ – Zur Logik des moralischen Urteils bei Wittgenstein und Hegel 473
  35. Der Status mathematischer und religiöser Sätze bei Wittgenstein 485
  36. Gutes Sehen 499
  37. Wittgenstein’s Conjecture 515
  38. Index of Names 535
  39. Index of Subjects 539
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Heruntergeladen am 17.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110657883-019/html
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