Cheryl Misak (University of Toronto): 'Frank Ramsey's contributions to mathematics and its foundations, with biographical asides'
This talk will trace Frank Ramsey’s developing ideas in mathematics and its foundations, from the perspective of a philosopher and intellectual biographer. It will be concerned primarily with the arc that can be traced from Ramsey’s 1923 Critical Notice of the Tractatus, 1925 ‘The Foundations of Mathematics’, 1928 ‘A Problem in Formal Logic’ and 1929 turn away from logicism and towards what he had called ‘the Bolshevik menace of Brouwer and Weyl’. Wittgenstein will be ever-present, and along the way, we will catch glimpses of Ramsey’s intellectual relationships with Russell, Hardy, Langford, the Vienna Circle, Brouwer and Weyl, and the Hilbert School. The first draft of the biography has just been completed, and the relevant sections are available in advance from cheryl.misak@utoronto.ca for anyone who might be interested in giving critical comments on them.
Philosophy of Mathematics Seminar Convenors: Dr James Stud, Dr Daniel Isaacson, and Prof Volker Halbach | Philosophy of Mathematics Webpage
