David Ross

This commentary is part of The Atlas Society's 1999 online "CyberSeminar" entitled "The Continental Origins of Postmodernism."

This commentary is part of The Atlas Society's 1999 online "CyberSeminar" entitled "The Continental Origins of Postmodernism."

May 2001 -- When I was a boy in school, my father told me, often, that mathematics was the most important subject. "And the thing in mathematics," he always advised, "is to know the formulas. You have to be able to remember the formulas." I didn't agree with him, at least not about the formulas. Most of my classmates, and most of my teachers, memorized and applied formulas and algorithms (fixed, step-by-step procedures for solving mathematical problems) with little idea of their meaning. This seemed ridiculous.

The philosophy of mathematics is the philosophical study of the concepts and methods of mathematics. It is concerned with the nature of numbers, geometric objects, and other mathematical concepts; it is concerned with their cognitive origins and with their application to reality. It addresses the validation of methods of mathematical inference. In particular, it deals with the logical problems associated with mathematical infinitude.