BibTeX
@MISC{Dembski_thepragmatic,
author = {William A. Dembski},
title = {The Pragmatic Nature of Mathematical Inquiry},
year = {}
}
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Abstract
formalist program to “eradicate via proof theory all the foundational questions of mathematics ” was in full swing. As a pupil of Hilbert, Weyl was looking to the complete and ultimate success of Hilbert’s program, a confidence evident in Weyl’s treatment of the foundations of mathematics in the original version of Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science. But in an appendix to that same text appearing twenty years later, Weyl (1949, p. 219) admitted that this confidence was misplaced: The aim of Hilbert’s “Beweistheorie ” was, as he declared, “die Grundlagenfragen einfürallemal aus der Welt zu schaffen ” [i.e., the aim of Hilbert’s “proof theory ” was to “eradicate all the foundational questions ” of mathematics]. In 1926 there was reason for the optimistic expectation that by a few years’ sustained effort he and his collaborators would succeed in establishing consistency for the formal equivalent of our classical mathematics. The first steps had been inspiring and promising
