Principia Mathematica to *56

Fülszöveg

PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA
TO *56
By Alfred North Whitehead and
Bertrand Russell
The great three-volume Principia Mathematica is deservedly the most
famous work ever written on the foundations of mathematics. Its
aim is to deduce all the fundamental propositions of logic and
mathematics from a small number of logical premisses and primitive
ideas, and so to prove that mathematics is a development of logic.
This abridged text of Volume I contains the material that is most
relevant to an introductory study of logic and the philosophy of
mathematics (more advanced students will of course wish to refer
to the complete edition). It contains the whole of the preliminary
sections (which present the authors'justification of the philosophical
standpoint adopted at the outset of their work); the whole of Part I
(in which the logical properties of propositions, propositional
functions, classes and relations are established); Section A of Part II
(dealing with unit classes and... Tovább

Fülszöveg

PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA
TO *56
By Alfred North Whitehead and
Bertrand Russell
The great three-volume Principia Mathematica is deservedly the most
famous work ever written on the foundations of mathematics. Its
aim is to deduce all the fundamental propositions of logic and
mathematics from a small number of logical premisses and primitive
ideas, and so to prove that mathematics is a development of logic.
This abridged text of Volume I contains the material that is most
relevant to an introductory study of logic and the philosophy of
mathematics (more advanced students will of course wish to refer
to the complete edition). It contains the whole of the preliminary
sections (which present the authors'justification of the philosophical
standpoint adopted at the outset of their work); the whole of Part I
(in which the logical properties of propositions, propositional
functions, classes and relations are established); Section A of Part II
(dealing with unit classes and couples); and Appendices A and G
(which give further developments of the argument on the theory of
deduction and on truth-functions).
Here are some comments on the complete edition:
This is the book that has meant the most to me.
Willard Van Orman Quine
May be said, without exaggeration, to mark an epoch in the history
of speculative thought. The Spectator
To all those who value exactness of thought for its own sake, this
volume and the stupendous labor which it expresses, will appeal as
a monument of devotion to pure thinking.
Morris R. Cohen in The Philosophical Review
No one who is prepared to recognize the value of work in logic and
who appreciates the enormous importance in logic and general philo-
sophy of mathematical concepts, function, class, number, magnitude,
and so forth, should be too diffident of his ability to cope with the
difficulties of this book. It is not a book that many will read right
through. But it will be a foolish philosopher who will not make a
serious effort to master the most essential sections. The Times
This view of the nature of mathematics has won almost universal
acceptance, and in the achievements of this century in the doiiiain
of Pure Thought is to be ranked only with the Theory of Relativity.
R. B. Braithwaite in The Nation Vissza