Philosophy Through Mathematics and Logic

Abstract

All over the world philosophy is commonly taken to be centrally concerned with fundamental considerations about life and society. From such a perspective, mathematics and logic are very remote from philosophy indeed. Yet within the European tradition they have often occupied a conspicuous position in the pursuit of philosophy, beginning with the surprising devotion to ‘pure thought’ (or, in Husserl’s words, the ‘passion to know’) displayed in Greek philosophy. Given this devotion (or ‘passion’), the interest in mathematics and logic is not so hard to understand, since they are concerned with the ‘clean’ (in the sense of being abstract or idealized) and fundamental (in the sense of being universal) aspect of knowledge and reality. Indeed, according to a suggestive caricature, the spirit of Greek philosophical thought is said to be ‘unworldly,’ whereas that of the Chinese is said to be ‘worldly’ and that of the Indian ‘other worldly.’