Product Description

Russell is the most important philosopher of mathematics of the twentieth century. The author of The Principles of Mathematics, and, with Alfred Whitehead, the massive Principia Mathematica, he brought together his formidable knowledge of the subject and skills as a gifted communicator to provide a classic introduction to the philosophy of mathematics. Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy sets out in a lucid and non-technical way the main ideas of Principia Mathematica. It is as inspiring and useful to the beginner now as it was when it was first published in 1919.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135869 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

A very accessible mathematical classic
An excellent and lucid exposition of what we really mean when we talk about 2 houses, or 1/2 an hour, or square root of 2 meters, or that the counting numbers are infinite. It does not require any prior mathematical knowledge beyond the basics, although it probably will be of interest only to those that care about math at its most abstract. It is fascinating to realize how much we take for granted when we do math and how much ingenuity it takes to pin down the concept of number. Highly recommended.

Mathematical Philosophy
What the author of the review above (the first one) obviously didn't notice was that the book is called 'intro to m'cal philosophy' not 'the philosophy of mathematics'. As Russell at the time had been introducing a 'mathematical method' into philosophy, e.g. in the case of maths to derive it from the certainties of logic (e.g. Principia Mathematica), the book serves as an excellent intro to some of the central notions of PM, and thus is a brilliant intro to Mathematical Philosophy, which is best displayed in PM. The title is in no way misleading and besides many matters which do not pertain especially more to logicism than any other foundational philosophy, such as ordinality and cardinality etc are ludidly and wittily explained. Certianly a good first step with which to explore the philosophy of maths.

A very dated and one-sided introduction to the subject
This book is important for revealing Russell's views, at a certain point in his career, on the philosphies of mathematics and logic. But it says little on other philosophical viewpoints (even if only to criticise them). It might be better titled now 'Introduction to a Mathematical Philosophy (Called Logicism)'. We can hardly blame Russell for not knowing about the later developments of the subject (especially Godel), but it is worth bearing in mind that the book was written before some very important discoveries.

Like anything Russell wrote, it is a pleasure to read - his writing style is wonderful, and quite extraordinary when one realises how quickly he wrote this book (in prison, too!), but I suspect that for many readers the mathematical content will prove a little tricky to grasp.

As a historical document, it is fascinating; as an introduction to mathematical philosophy it is too narrow-minded for 1999.