… I am still full of this eerie feeling: a speaker after speaker was talking about mathematics and mathematicians, but, in their descriptions, I could not recognise neither mathematics, nor myself. I was non-existent in the spooky world of philosophy.
Leo Cullum, 2006. Source: cartoonbank.com.
There is something wrong with philosophy of mathematics. Perhaps organisations like AMS and LMS should start sending hit squads of professional mathematicians to every conference on philosophy, methodology or sociology of mathematics, so that they could publicly refute at least most obvious bullshit being told from podia. Why not call this Mathematics Patrol programme?
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August 28, 2008 at 6:44 pm
richardcorke
Some of what passes for philosophy today is trivia at best and nonsensical verbalism at worst. What happened to philosophy as the love and pursuit of meaningful wisdom? Is it nothing more today than a bunch of eggheads keeping their socially irrelevant jobs?
October 12, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Anonymous
speechless
February 21, 2009 at 1:46 am
edwin coleman
i understand your reaction, but don’t agree with your solution. I wrote my phd on the philosophy of mathematics, and it was largely inspired by an attitude like yours “there is something wrong with philosophy of mathematics”. Unfortunately what is wrong with fM, apart from what is wrong with academic philosophy generally [ridiculous overspecialisation, obsession with fashionable star thinkers and hot topics, impenetrable technicality, institutional pressure for unnecesary publication etc etc] can largely be blame don mathematicians – the main obsessionin fM are all tied up with e thedeveloment of formal logic and metamathematics; the ruling assumptions are that only mathematical models can answer philospophical questions about mathematics and that somehow foundations – tho generally agreed to be not possible – are somehow needed all the same. Oh and by the way, amateur philosophy is often even worse than the professional sort …
February 21, 2009 at 6:51 am
Alexandre Borovik
Edwin: entirely agree with you. My proposed solution was, of course, a joke. We need a proper dialogue between mathematicians and philosophers, and we need not because philosophy of mathematics is stagnant, but because mathematics is in crisis.