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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

209727

Completions, constructions, and corollaries

Thomas Mormann

pp. 59-70

Abstract

Kant argued that pure intuition is an indispensable ingredient of mathematical proofs. However, Kant's thesis has been considered obsolete since the advent of modern relational logic at the end of the nineteenth century. Against this logicist orthodoxy, Cassirer's "critical idealism" insisted that formal logic alone could not make sense of the conceptual coevolution of mathematical and scientific concepts. For Cassirer, idealizations, or, more precisely, idealizing completions, play a fundamental role in the formation of the mathematical and empirical concepts. This paper outlines the basics of Cassirer's idealizational account and points out some interesting similarities to Kant's and Peirce's philosophies of mathematics, which are based on the key notions of pure intuition and theorematic reasoning, respectively.

Publication details

Published in:

Hanna Gila, Jahnke Hans Niels, Pulte Helmut (2010) Explanation and proof in mathematics: philosophical and educational perspectives. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 59-70

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-0576-5_5

Full citation:

Mormann Thomas (2010) „Completions, constructions, and corollaries“, In: G. Hanna, H. Jahnke & H. Pulte (eds.), Explanation and proof in mathematics, Dordrecht, Springer, 59–70.