René Descartes Lectures 2010
Every other year, a distinguished philosopher visits Tilburg University for one week to present the René Descartes Lectures. It is a great pleasure to announce that Professor Ian Hacking will give this year's lectures.
Proof: Calculation, Intuition, and A Priori Knowledge
Professor Ian Hacking, University of Toronto and Collčge de France
6 - 8 October 2010
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
The Lectures are conjoined with a workshop on the theme of the lectures and the Third European Graduate School on Language, Mind and Science, a cooperation of the universities of Bochum, Lausanne and Tilburg. It is preceded by the Workshop "Objectivity and the Practice of Science" on Tuesday, 5 October 2010.Professor Ian Hacking, University of Toronto and Collčge de France
6 - 8 October 2010
Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Synopsis of the Lectures
A century ago Bertrand Russell wrote that, "The question which Kant put at the beginning of his philosophy, namely 'How is pure mathematics possible?' is an interesting and difficult one, to which every philosophy which is not purely sceptical must find some answer." These lectures do not try to answer Kant's question, as understood by Russell, but, after reading some remarks of Wittgenstein's, try to undermine it. They will conclude with another version of the same question, namely, how did mathematical ability arise as a human faculty?
These lectures are not mathematical in character. Our concern is not philosophical analysis of specific issues about the infinite, or about constructive as opposed to classical proof, or the significance of Gödel's results. We are preoccupied by a powerful strand in philosophizing that is strikingly present in philosophers as diverse as Plato, Descartes, and Husserl, in addition to the three just mentioned, Kant, Russell, and Wittgenstein.
The motto of these lectures could well be from Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics: "What we are supplying are really remarks on the natural history of mankind: not curiosities however, but rather observations on facts which no one has doubted and which have only gone unremarked because they are always before our eyes." Yet the consequences of these observations lead to truly radical changes in our conceptions of mathematics.
A century ago Bertrand Russell wrote that, "The question which Kant put at the beginning of his philosophy, namely 'How is pure mathematics possible?' is an interesting and difficult one, to which every philosophy which is not purely sceptical must find some answer." These lectures do not try to answer Kant's question, as understood by Russell, but, after reading some remarks of Wittgenstein's, try to undermine it. They will conclude with another version of the same question, namely, how did mathematical ability arise as a human faculty?
These lectures are not mathematical in character. Our concern is not philosophical analysis of specific issues about the infinite, or about constructive as opposed to classical proof, or the significance of Gödel's results. We are preoccupied by a powerful strand in philosophizing that is strikingly present in philosophers as diverse as Plato, Descartes, and Husserl, in addition to the three just mentioned, Kant, Russell, and Wittgenstein.
The motto of these lectures could well be from Wittgenstein's Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics: "What we are supplying are really remarks on the natural history of mankind: not curiosities however, but rather observations on facts which no one has doubted and which have only gone unremarked because they are always before our eyes." Yet the consequences of these observations lead to truly radical changes in our conceptions of mathematics.
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