A footnote to ``The crisis in contemporary mathematics'' (Q1635798)

The subject of this short note is a paper [ibid. 2, 507--517 (1975; Zbl 0361.02001)], published by \textit{E. Bishop}, itself based on a 1974 lecture delivered at a meeting organised by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The lecture attempted to reconcile the differences in the views of Hilbert and Brouwer concerning the interpretation of logical connectives and quantifiers. The authors of this note compare three extant versions of the lecture (a draft of 1974, an audio recording of the same year, and the 1975 Hist. Math. version), paying particular attention to the appearance in some versions but not others of a remark made in connection with [\textit{A. Robinson}, Non-standard analysis. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company (1966; Zbl 0151.00803)] about its possible ``debasement of meaning''. The context of the ``debasement'' comment is explored with regard to Bishop's view of the law of excluded middle as being meaningless.