scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1558555

Publication date 30 January 2001

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) Collected or selected works; reprintings or translations of classics (01A75)

Review text

This book constitutes Volume 13 of the first series (devoted to ``Writings) of the ongoing publication of the collected works of the Czech mathematician and philospher Bernard Bolzano. (Several other volumes in this series have already been reviewed.) It is devoted entirely to Bolzano's ``Wissenschaftslehre, here 269-306, which include the third major part of Bolzano's ``theory of knowledge, devoted largely to concepts [Vorstellungen] and judgments [Urteile]. Little in this volume deals with mathematics, except for Bolzano's critique of Kant's analysis of the synthetic, a priori character of mathematics, which includes limited discussion on Bolzano's part of examples from both arithmetic and geometry. On the subject of mathematics, this volume will be of greatest interest to those interested in Bolzano's logic and his analysis of mathematical definition, proof, etc. As to its place in the history of science generally, the editor Berg's brief introduction suggests that parts of the ``Wissenschaftslehre anticipate R. Carnap's Der logische Aufbau der Welt, especially certain aspects of Bolzano's rational reconstruction of a theory of empirical understanding. As in earlier volumes of this edition, the bibliography gives complete references to all literature cited by Bolzano in the parts of the ``Wissenschaftslehre reprinted here. In addition to a subject index, there is also a name index including short biographical references for every figure mentioned in this volume, however obscure.

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