L. E. J. Brouwer: Intuitionism (Q2175759)

The book contains three works by the founder of intuitionism Brouwer of the 1920s. The first one is a recording of the lectures given by him in Berlin in 1927. They are an overture to an extended and deep intuitionism. A complete idea of the content of the lectures is given by the listing of the titles of the chapters: the historical position of intuitionism; the subject of intuitionistic mathematics: types, points and spaces, continuum; order; analysis of the continuum; the main theorem of finite sets; intuitionistic criticism of some elementary theorems. The second work is based on the manuscript of an unpublished treatise by Brouwer on the basics of intuitionistic analysis. In the first chapter, the intuitionistic concept of a point is defined through sequences of nested intervals with rational ends whose lengths become arbitrarily small. Of course, this construction can be extended to arbitrary \(n\)-dimensional space. Then the concept of a point species is introduced as a property that points can have. A point set is defined as a point species defined by some law governing the choice of a sequence of intervals. Then, the topology of point species and the measure theory are developed in detail. In the second chapter, the intuitionistic concept of a function is introduced, continuous and uniformly continuous functions are defined. On the basis of a specific intuitionistic interpretation of the concept of function, the theorem on the uniform continuity of any total function is proved. The third work is a lecture delivered by Brouwer in Vienna on March 10, 1928 at the invitation of the Committee for Invited Lectures of Foreign Scientists of Exact Sciences. Here, the author's philosophical views on scientific cognition and the role of mathematics in it are presented, doubts are expressed about the legality of the use of traditional logic in the study of infinite systems, the philosophical foundations of intuitionism are presented. The intuitionistic criticism of the law of the excluded middle is illustrated by a number of mathematical examples. These works of Brouwer are accompanied by comments from the publishers. Thus, the introduction to the book traces the development of Brouwer's intuitionistic ideas, describes the history of his relations with the mathematical community in the 1920s, in particular, the controversy with Hilbert. The book contains a bibliography of Brouwer's works, as well as works by other authors directly related to Brouwer's work and his ideas. For the first edition see [\textit{L. E. J. Brouwer}, Intuitionismus. Hrsg., eingel. und komment. von Dirk van Dalen. Mannheim: B.I.-Wissenschaftsverlag (1992; Zbl 0761.03001)].