Stephen Pollard

This unique approach maintains that set theory is the primary mechanism for ideological and theoretical unification in modern mathematics, and its technically informed discussion covers a variety of philosophical issues. 1990 edition.

Philosophical Introduction to Set Theory

This volume offers English translations of three early works by Ernst Schröder (1841-1902), a mathematician and logician whose philosophical ruminations and pathbreaking contributions to algebraic logic attracted the admiration and ire of figures such as Dedekind, Frege, Husserl, and C. S. Peirce. Today he still engages the sympathetic interest of logicians and philosophers. The works translated record Schröder’s journey out of algebra into algebraic logic and document his transformation of George Boole’s opaque and unwieldy logical calculus into what we now recognize as Boolean algebra. Readers interested in algebraic logic and abstract algebra can look forward to a tour of the early history of those fields with a guide who was exceptionally thorough, unfailingly honest, and deeply reflective.

Ernst Schröder on Algebra and Logic

Giles Radice

In 1992, the Fabian Society published Southern Discomfort, revealing the attitudes of key swing voters in the South of England whose support Labour must gain if it is to win again.

A Year on -- Taxing and Spending

More Southern Discomfort

Moritz Pasch (1843-1930) is justly celebrated as a key figure in the history of axiomatic geometry. Less well known are his contributions to other areas of foundational research. This volume features English translations of 14 papers Pasch published in the decade 1917-1926. In them, Pasch argues that geometry and, more surprisingly, number theory are branches of empirical science; he provides axioms for the combinatorial reasoning essential to Hilbert’s program of consistency proofs; he explores "implicit definition" (a generalization of definition by abstraction) and indicates how this technique yields an "empiricist" reconstruction of set theory; he argues that we cannot fully understand the logical structure of mathematics without clearly distinguishing between decidable and undecidable properties; he offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a master of axiomatics, surveying in detail the thought experiments he employed as he struggled to identify fundamental mathematical principles; and much more. This volume will: Give English speakers access to an important body of work from a turbulent and pivotal period in the history of mathematics, help us look beyond the familiar triad of formalism, intuitionism, and logicism, show how deeply we can see with the help of a guide determined to present fundamental mathematical ideas in ways that match our human capacities, will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in logic and the foundations of mathematics.

Essays on the Foundations of Mathematics by Moritz Pasch

Andrew Adonis

A Class Act aims to explode the myth that Britain is becoming a classless society, by systematically examining the pillars of the new class structure - education, the monarchy, the armed forces, health, politics, housing and race.

The Myth of Britain's Classless Society

A Class Act

Sometimes it is not big events or great men or women that change history. Often, an apparently trivial occasion or insignificant decision changes everything. Stephen Pollard's alternative history of the past sixty years examines ten such crucial days in our history. None of them are obviously historic. But each of them changed the country - some for good, others for ill. Combining history, analysis, humour and polemic, this incisive look at events stretched across six decades reveals how and why we became the nation we now are. The ten days which constitute Pollard's history of Britain deal with important areas of national life. The arrival on 22 June 1948 of 492 West Indians aboard HMS Empire Windrushchanged the very make-up of the country. The invention of the microwave on 8 October 1945 altered not just what we eat but how we eat - and drink. The education system, Pollard argues, was destroyed by the forced introduction of comprehensive schooling on 12 July 1965. Publication of Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch on 24 October 1970changed family life. And the staging of It's a Royal Knockout on 15 June 1987 marked the end of the monarchy as a serious institution. The events of other days transformed culture, politics, crime, sport and the very future of Western civilization. Behind each of the ten days is a story; some of these stories are well known, some obscure. Fusing narrative with analysis, and history with contemporary relevance, Ten Days That Changed the Nation shows us the major impact that apparently minor events can have on our lives. Stephen Pollard's approachable, readable narrative is as engaging as it is controversial. Sure to incite debate, Ten Days That Changed the Nation is a handbook for our times.

The Making of Modern Britain

Ten Days that Changed the Nation

This book is based on two premises: one cannot understand philosophy of mathematics without understanding mathematics and one cannot understand mathematics without doing mathematics. It draws readers into philosophy of mathematics by having them do mathematics. It offers 298 exercises, covering philosophically important material, presented in a philosophically informed way. The exercises give readers opportunities to recreate some mathematics that will illuminate important readings in philosophy of mathematics. Topics include primitive recursive arithmetic, Peano arithmetic, Gödel's theorems, interpretability, the hierarchy of sets, Frege arithmetic and intuitionist sentential logic. The book is intended for readers who understand basic properties of the natural and real numbers and have some background in formal logic.

Stephen Pollard

About

Books

Join the club