Mathematics Ho! Which modern mathematics was modernist? (Q2268032): Difference between revisions

The paper is devoted to the problem of modernism in mathematics. The author discusses the specification and the range of the modernist thesis, suggests several new examples and further contexts for it and questions some parts of the pertinent historical record. Several general issues involved are raised -- in particular the relationship between mathematics and symbolic logics and between pure and applied mathematics. At the end the breadth and depth of the modernist thesis relative to mathematics as a whole is assessed. In order to ground the discussion the author considers two important books: ``Moderne -- Sprache -- Mathematik. Eine Geschichte des Streits um die Grundlagen der Disziplin und des Subjekts formaler Sprache'' by \textit{H. Mehrtens} [Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp Verlag (1990; Zbl 0978.00009)] and ``Plato's ghost. The modernist transformation of mathematics'' by \textit{J. J. Gray} [Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2008; Zbl 1166.00005)].