On Diagonal Argument. Russell Absurdities and an Uncountable Notion of Lingua Characterica
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Russell's 1903 – 1905 Anticipation of the Lambda Calculus
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC, 24 (2003), 15–37 Russell’s 1903 – 1905 Anticipation of the Lambda Calculus KEVIN C. KLEMENT Philosophy Dept, Univ. of Massachusetts, 352 Bartlett Hall, 130 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USA Received 22 July 2002 It is well known that the circumflex notation used by Russell and Whitehead to form complex function names in Principia Mathematica played a role in inspiring Alonzo Church’s ‘Lambda Calculus’ for functional logic developed in the 1920s and 1930s. Interestingly, earlier unpublished manuscripts written by Russell between 1903 and 1905—surely unknown to Church—contain a more extensive anticipation of the essential details of the Lambda Calculus. Russell also anticipated Scho¨ nfinkel’s Combinatory Logic approach of treating multi- argument functions as functions having other functions as value. Russell’s work in this regard seems to have been largely inspired by Frege’s theory of functions and ‘value-ranges’. This system was discarded by Russell due to his abandonment of propositional functions as genuine entities as part of a new tack for solving Rus- sell’s paradox. In this article, I explore the genesis and demise of Russell’s early anticipation of the Lambda Calculus. 1. Introduction The Lambda Calculus, as we know it today, was initially developed by Alonzo Church in the late 1920s and 1930s (see, e.g. Church 1932, 1940, 1941, Church and Rosser 1936), although it built heavily on work done by others, perhaps most notably, the early works on Combinatory Logic by Moses Scho¨ nfinkel (see, e.g. his 1924) and Haskell Curry (see, e.g. -
Mathematical Induction - a Miscellany of Theory, History and Technique
Mathematical Induction - a miscellany of theory, history and technique Theory and applications for advanced secondary students Part 4 Peter Haggstrom This work is subject to Copyright. It is a chapter in a larger work. You can however copy this chapter for educational purposes under the Statutory License of the Copyright Act 1968 - Part VB For more information [email protected] Copyright 2009 [email protected] The building blocks of Gödelʼs Theorem The foundations of Gödel’s Theorem (ie his undecidability theorem) are to be found in about 50 papers contained in a book by Jean van Heijenoort:, “From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879 - 1931”. Every serious logic student has read this book. Van Heijenoort is worth mentioning even if only for his colourful past which is described by Benjamin H Yandell in his book “The Honors Class: Hilbert’s Problems and Their Solvers”, A K Peters, 2002, page 66. I quote in full: “ I assumed van Heijenoort was merely a logician as I gratefully pored over his book and was astounded when I learned that as a young man, in the 1930s, he had followed Leon Trotsky from Turkey to France to Norway to Mexico, as his body guard and secretary. Anita Feferman’s ”From Trotsky to Gödel”: The Life of Jean van Heijenoort” tells van Heijenoort’s remarkable story. Trotsky and his camp were pursued by Stalinist agents; van Heijenoort always packed a gun. Van Heijenoort had an affair with an artist Frida Kahlo. He epitomized cool and was attractive to women, and this continued even after he became a logician, He had grown tired of the rigors of life with Trotsky and traveled to New York in 1939 on a somewhat vague mission. -
Haskell Before Haskell. an Alternative Lesson in Practical Logics of the ENIAC.∗
Haskell before Haskell. An alternative lesson in practical logics of the ENIAC.∗ Liesbeth De Mol† Martin Carl´e‡ Maarten Bullynck§ January 21, 2011 Abstract This article expands on Curry’s work on how to implement the prob- lem of inverse interpolation on the ENIAC (1946) and his subsequent work on developing a theory of program composition (1948-1950). It is shown that Curry’s hands-on experience with the ENIAC on the one side and his acquaintance with systems of formal logic on the other, were conduc- tive to conceive a compact “notation for program construction” which in turn would be instrumental to a mechanical synthesis of programs. Since Curry’s systematic programming technique pronounces a critique of the Goldstine-von Neumann style of coding, his “calculus of program com- position”not only anticipates automatic programming but also proposes explicit hardware optimisations largely unperceived by computer history until Backus famous ACM Turing Award lecture (1977). This article frames Haskell B. Curry’s development of a general approach to programming. Curry’s work grew out of his experience with the ENIAC in 1946, took shape by his background as a logician and finally materialised into two lengthy reports (1948 and 1949) that describe what Curry called the ‘composition of programs’. Following up to the concise exposition of Curry’s approach that we gave in [28], we now elaborate on technical details, such as diagrams, tables and compiler-like procedures described in Curry’s reports. We also give a more in-depth discussion of the transition from Curry’s concrete, ‘hands-on’ experience with the ENIAC to a general theory of combining pro- grams in contrast to the Goldstine-von Neumann method of tackling the “coding and planning of problems” [18] for computers with the help of ‘flow-charts’. -
Strategic Maneuvering in Mathematical Proofs
CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Springer - Publisher Connector Argumentation (2008) 22:453–468 DOI 10.1007/s10503-008-9098-7 Strategic Maneuvering in Mathematical Proofs Erik C. W. Krabbe Published online: 6 May 2008 Ó The Author(s) 2008 Abstract This paper explores applications of concepts from argumentation theory to mathematical proofs. Note is taken of the various contexts in which proofs occur and of the various objectives they may serve. Examples of strategic maneuvering are discussed when surveying, in proofs, the four stages of argumentation distin- guished by pragma-dialectics. Derailments of strategies (fallacies) are seen to encompass more than logical fallacies and to occur both in alleged proofs that are completely out of bounds and in alleged proofs that are at least mathematical arguments. These considerations lead to a dialectical and rhetorical view of proofs. Keywords Argumentation Á Blunder Á Fallacy Á False proof Á Mathematics Á Meno Á Pragma-dialectics Á Proof Á Saccheri Á Strategic maneuvering Á Tarski 1 Introduction The purport of this paper1 is to show that concepts from argumentation theory can be fruitfully applied to contexts of mathematical proof. As a source for concepts to be tested I turn to pragma-dialectics: both to the Standard Theory and to the Integrated Theory. The Standard Theory has been around for a long time and achieved its final formulation in 2004 (Van Eemeren and Grootendorst 1984, 1992, 2004). According to the Standard Theory argumentation is a communication process aiming at 1 The paper was first presented at the NWO-conference on ‘‘Strategic Manoeuvring in Institutionalised Contexts’’, University of Amsterdam, 26 October 2007. -
How Peircean Was the “'Fregean' Revolution” in Logic?
HOW PEIRCEAN WAS THE “‘FREGEAN’ REVOLUTION” IN LOGIC? Irving H. Anellis Peirce Edition, Institute for American Thought Indiana University – Purdue University at Indianapolis Indianapolis, IN, USA [email protected] Abstract. The historiography of logic conceives of a Fregean revolution in which modern mathematical logic (also called symbolic logic) has replaced Aristotelian logic. The preeminent expositors of this conception are Jean van Heijenoort (1912–1986) and Don- ald Angus Gillies. The innovations and characteristics that comprise mathematical logic and distinguish it from Aristotelian logic, according to this conception, created ex nihlo by Gottlob Frege (1848–1925) in his Begriffsschrift of 1879, and with Bertrand Rus- sell (1872–1970) as its chief This position likewise understands the algebraic logic of Augustus De Morgan (1806–1871), George Boole (1815–1864), Charles Sanders Peirce (1838–1914), and Ernst Schröder (1841–1902) as belonging to the Aristotelian tradi- tion. The “Booleans” are understood, from this vantage point, to merely have rewritten Aristotelian syllogistic in algebraic guise. The most detailed listing and elaboration of Frege’s innovations, and the characteristics that distinguish mathematical logic from Aristotelian logic, were set forth by van Heijenoort. I consider each of the elements of van Heijenoort’s list and note the extent to which Peirce had also developed each of these aspects of logic. I also consider the extent to which Peirce and Frege were aware of, and may have influenced, one another’s logical writings. AMS (MOS) 2010 subject classifications: Primary: 03-03, 03A05, 03C05, 03C10, 03G27, 01A55; secondary: 03B05, 03B10, 03E30, 08A20; Key words and phrases: Peirce, abstract algebraic logic; propositional logic; first-order logic; quantifier elimina- tion, equational classes, relational systems §0. -
Georg Kreisel Correspondence with Jean Van Heijenoort
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c84q7wxh No online items Guide to the Georg Kreisel Correspondence with Jean van Heijenoort Daniel Hartwig Stanford University. Libraries.Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford, California October 2010 Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. Note This encoded finding aid is compliant with Stanford EAD Best Practice Guidelines, Version 1.0. Guide to the Georg Kreisel SC0233 1 Correspondence with Jean van Heijenoort Overview Call Number: SC0233 Creator: Kreisel, Georg, 1923- Title: Georg Kreisel correspondence with Jean van Heijenoort Dates: 1949-1981 Physical Description: 6 Linear feet Summary: Correspondence, notes, memoranda, articles and other materials by Professor Georg Kreisel, sent to his colleague, Professor J. van Heijenoort of Harvard University. Includes some correspondence with other colleagues. Language(s): The materials are in English. Repository: Department of Special Collections and University Archives Green Library 557 Escondido Mall Stanford, CA 94305-6064 Email: [email protected] Phone: (650) 725-1022 URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc Gift of J. van Heijenoort, 1981. Information about Access This collection is open for research. Ownership & Copyright All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94304-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. -
Hunting the Story of Moses Schönfinkel
Where Did Combinators Come From? Hunting the Story of Moses Schönfinkel Stephen Wolfram* Combinators were a key idea in the development of mathematical logic and the emergence of the concept of universal computation. They were introduced on December 7, 1920, by Moses Schönfinkel. This is an exploration of the personal story and intellectual context of Moses Schönfinkel, including extensive new research based on primary sources. December 7, 1920 On Tuesday, December 7, 1920, the Göttingen Mathematics Society held its regular weekly meeting—at which a 32-year-old local mathematician named Moses Schönfinkel with no known previous mathematical publications gave a talk entitled “Elemente der Logik” (“Elements of Logic”). This piece is included in S. Wolfram (2021), Combinators: A Centennial View, Wolfram Media. (wolframmedia.com/products/combinators-a-centennial-view.html) and accompanies arXiv:2103.12811 and arXiv:2102.09658. Originally published December 7, 2020 *Email: [email protected] 2 | Stephen Wolfram A hundred years later what was presented in that talk still seems in many ways alien and futuristic—and for most people almost irreducibly abstract. But we now realize that that talk gave the first complete formalism for what is probably the single most important idea of this past century: the idea of universal computation. Sixteen years later would come Turing machines (and lambda calculus). But in 1920 Moses Schönfinkel presented what he called “building blocks of logic”—or what we now call “combinators”—and then proceeded to show that by appropriately combining them one could effectively define any function, or, in modern terms, that they could be used to do universal computation. -
Bio-Bibliographical Sketch of Jean Van Heijenoort
Lubitz’ TrotskyanaNet Jean Van Heijenoort Bio-Bibliographical Sketch Contents: Basic biographical data Biographical sketch Selective bibliography Sidelines, notes on archives Basic biographical data Name: Jean Van Heijenoort Other names (by-names, pseud. etc.): Alex Barbon ; Jacques Carton ; García Cestero ; Jarvis Gerland ; J.v.H. ; Vladimir Ivlev ; John ; Marcel Letourneur ; Daniel Logan ; Marc Loris ; K.M. ; M. Marcel ; Karl Mayer ; Karl Meyer ; Jean Rebel ; V. ; Van ; Jean Louis Maxime Van Heijenoort ; John Van Heijenoort ; Jean Vannier ; Ann Vincent ; J. Walter Wind ; Windy Date and place of birth: July 23, 1912, Creil (France) Date and place of death: March 29, 1986, México, D.F. (México) Nationality: French ; USA Occupations, careers: Professor of philosophy, mathematician, logician, archivist, writer, editor, translator, secretary, political activist Time of activity in Trotskyist movement: 1931 - 1948 Biographical sketch Jean Van Heijenoort was undoubtedly one of the most distinguished and devoted persons who shared the Trotskyist movement: first a secretary and bodyguard to Trotsky, then a secretary of the Fourth International and eventually one of the most eminent scholars in the field of modern mathematics and history of logic. His remark- able and quite extraordinary itinerary has been described and appraised by various renowned historians and scholars such as Pierre Broué or Irving H. Anellis, and a rich book-length biography about him from Anita B. Feferman's pen has been available since 19931. Jean (Louis Maxime) Van Heijenoort was born in Creil (Département Oise, France) on July 23, 1912 as son of a working-class family: his father was Jean Théodore Didier van Heijenoort (b. 1885), a Dutchman who had immigrated to France, and his mother was Charlotte Hélène Balagny (b. -
CURRY, Haskell Brooks (1900–1982) Haskell Brooks Curry Was Born On
CURRY, Haskell Brooks (1900–1982) Haskell Brooks Curry was born on 12 September 1900 at Millis, Massachusetts and died on 1 September 1982 at State College, Pennsylvania. His parents were Samuel Silas Curry and Anna Baright Curry, founders of the School for Expression in Boston, now known as Curry College. He graduated from high school in 1916 and entered Harvard College with the intention of going into medicine. When the USA entered World War I in 1917, he changed his major to mathematics because he thought it might be useful for military purposes in the artillery. He also joined the Student Army Training Corps on 18 October 1918, but the war ended before he saw action. He received his B.A. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1920. From 1920 until 1922, he studied electrical engineering at MIT in a program that involved working half-time at the General Electric Company. From 1922 until 1924, he studied physics at Harvard; during the first of those two years he was a half-time research assistant to P. W. Bridgman, and in 1924 he received an A. M. in physics. He then studied mathematics, still at Harvard, until 1927; during the first semester of 1926–27 he was a half-time instructor. During 1927–28 he was an instructor at Princeton University. During 1928–29, he studied at the University of Göttingen, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation; his oral defense under David Hilbert was on 24 July 1929, although the published version carries the date of 1930. In the fall of 1929, Haskell Curry joined the faculty of The Pennsylvania State College (now The Pennsylvania State University), where he spent most of the rest of his career. -
Functional Programming and Verification
Functional Programming and Verification Tobias Nipkow Fakult¨atf¨urInformatik TU M¨unchen http://fpv.in.tum.de Wintersemester 2019/20 January 30, 2020 1 Sprungtabelle 18. Oktober 25. Oktober 08. November 15. November 22. November 29. November 06. December 13. Dezember 19. Dezember 10. Januar 17. Januar 24. Januar 31. Januar 2 1 Functional Programming: The Idea 2 Basic Haskell 3 Lists 4 Proofs 5 Higher-Order Functions 6 Type Classes 7 Algebraic data Types 8 I/O 9 Modules and Abstract Data Types 10 Case Study: Two Efficient Algorithms 11 Lazy evaluation 12 Monads 13 Complexity and Optimization 14 Case Study: Parsing 3 0. Organisatorisches 4 Siehe http://fpv.in.tum.de 6 Literatur • Vorlesung orientiert sich stark an Thompson: Haskell, the Craft of Functional Programming • F¨urFreunde der kompakten Darstellung: Hutton: Programming in Haskell • F¨urNaturtalente: Es gibt sehr viel Literatur online. Qualit¨atwechselhaft, nicht mit Vorlesung abgestimmt. 7 Klausur und Hausaufgaben • Klausur am Ende der Vorlesung • Notenbonus mit Hausaufgaben: siehe WWW-Seite Wer Hausaufgaben abschreibt oder abschreiben l¨asst, hat seinen Notenbonus sofort verwirkt. • Hausaufgabenstatistik: Wahrscheinlichkeit, die Klausur (oder W-Klausur) zu bestehen: • ≥ 40% der Hausaufgabenpunkte =) 100% • < 40% der Hausaufgabenpunkte =) < 50% • Aktueller pers¨onlicherPunktestand im WWW ¨uber Statusseite 8 Programmierwettbewerb | Der Weg zum Ruhm • Jede Woche eine Wettbewerbsaufgabe • Punktetabellen im Internet: • Die Top 30 jeder Woche • Die kumulative Top 30 • Ende des Semesters: -
Church's Coincidences
Church’s Coincidences Philip Wadler University of Edinburgh Midlands Graduate School, Leicester 8 April 2013 1 2 3 4 Part I About Coincidences 5 Two Kinds of Coincidence 6 Part II The First Coincidence: Effective Computability 7 Effective Computability • Alonzo Church: Lambda calculus An unsolvable problem of elementary number theory (Abstract) Bulletin the American Mathematical Society, May 1935 • Stephen C. Kleene: Recursive functions General recursive functions of natural numbers (Abstract) Bulletin the American Mathematical Society, July 1935 • Alan M. Turing: Turing machines On computable numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, received 25 May 1936 8 David Hilbert (1862–1943) 9 David Hilbert (1928) — Entscheidungsproblem 10 David Hilbert (1930) — An Address Konigsberg,¨ 8 September 1930 Society of German Scientists and Physicians “We must know! We will know!” 11 Kurt Godel¨ (1906–1978) 12 Kurt Godel¨ (1930) — Incompleteness Konigsberg,¨ 7 September 1930 Society of German Scientists and Physicians 13 Alonzo Church (1903–1995) 14 Alonzo Church (1932) — λ-calculus f(x) = x2 + x + 42 + f = λx. x2 + x + 42 8x:A = 8 (λx.A) 15 Alonzo Church (1932) — λ-calculus Then Now xx λx[N]( λx.N) fLg(M)( LM) 16 Alonzo Church (1932) — Lambda Calculus ··· ··· 17 Alonzo Church (1936) — Undecidability ··· ··· 18 Stephen Kleene (1909–1994) 19 Stephen Kleene (1932) — Predecessor ··· ··· 20 Stephen Kleene (1936) — Recursive Functions 21 Alan Turing (1912–1954) 22 Alan Turing (1936) — Turing Machine ··· 23 24 Robin Gandy (1988) — Turing’s Theorem Theorem: Any function which can be calculated by a human being can be computed by a Turing Machine. 25 Alan Turing (1937) — Equivalence ··· 26 Alan Turing (1946) — Automatic Computing Engine “Instruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with com- puting experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-solving ability. -
Curry on the Nature of Mathematics Hunan Rostomyan / February 14, 2013 Introduction Welcome to the First Meeting of Berkeley's
Curry on the Nature of Mathematics Hunan Rostomyan / February 14, 2013 Introduction Welcome to the first meeting of Berkeley's Undergraduate Philosophy of Mathematics Reading Group (unless some other undergraduate has organized a reading group around the topic at Berkeley, in which case, just append to the name the successor of the number of already existing such groups). We're not officially a club, at least not right now, so we don't get any support or encouragement from anyone (exceptions to this are Prof. Mancosu { who is teaching a course on Philosophy of Mathematics this semester by the way, Janet Groome { who is helping us get a permanent room for our meetings). So we gather here (or somewhere else) every week to talk about philosophy of math and logic or related areas. I have followed Prof. Mancosu's advice and decided to organize the meetings around a collection of classic writings on philosophy of mathematics compiled by Benacerraf & Putnam titled Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings (2nd Edition). The collection is divided into four parts: 1. Foundations (What is the nature of mathematics?) 2. Ontology (What is the nature of mathematical objects?) 3. Truth (What makes mathematical truths so special?) 4. Sets (What are sets? What is the continuum hypothesis?) We're already in the fourth week of the semester, we have only about ten meetings ahead of us, but the collection has about twenty-eight papers, so we have to pick and choose. Although all four areas are of immense importance, to go into any of them in any depth we have to ignore some, so what we'll do is focus on the first three parts (Foundations, Ontology, Truth), ignoring the philosophical issues related to sets and the continuum hypothesis.