[PREV - FOUND_MATH]    [TOP]

SUCH_A_THING_AS_KNOWLEDGE

                                             September 1-8, 2020

                                                 FOUND_MATH

Bertrand Russell started out looking
for some form of certain knowledge...

Bertrand Russell, "The Philosophy of Logical Atomism" (1918):

    "I came to philosophy through mathematics, or
    rather through the wish to find some reason to
    believe in the truth of mathematics. From early
    youth, I had an ardent desire to believe that
    there can be such a thing as knowledge, combined
    with a great difficulty in accepting much that
    passes as knowledge. It seemed clear that the  
    best chance of finding indubitable truth would be
    in pure mathematics, yet some of Euclid’s axioms
    were obviously doubtful, and the infinitesimal        I have some sympathy
    calculus, as I was taught it, was a mass of           for that complaint
    sophisms, which I could not bring myself to           about calc seeming
    regard as anything else."                             like "a mass of
                                                          sophisms".  The way I
                                                          was introduced to the
I think he's always had trouble shaking off this          concept of "taking a
dream completely, though he was far too smart not         limit", it struck me
to notice the problems:                                   as rather hand-wavey,
                                                          and I went with it
    "I do not pretend to start with precise               more on faith than
    questions. I do not think you can start               anything else.
    with anything precise. You have to achieve
    such precision as you can, as you go along."


--------
[NEXT - PLAYING_GOLF]