About this ebook
Using jointly history, mathematics and philosophy to grasp the essence of numbers, the reader is led through their various interpretations, presenting the ways they have been involved in major theoretical projects from Thales onward. Some pertain primarily to philosophy (as in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Wittgenstein...), others to general mathematics (Euclid's Elements, Cartesian algebraic geometry, Cantorian infinities, set theory...).
Also serving as an introduction to the works and thought of major mathematicians and philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to Cantor, Dedekind, Frege, Husserl and Weyl, this book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers, from scholars with a general interest in the philosophy or mathematics to philosophers and mathematicians themselves.
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About the author
Frédéric Patras, alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure and research director at CNRS, is a mathematician who has long been committed to philosophical studies. Also the author of a book on contemporary mathematical thinking (La pensée mathématique contemporaine), he has published and edited over a hundred works on various subjects. He is interested in what the philosophical tradition can bring to our current understanding of science and mathematics.
