Ernst Cassirer's transcendental account of mathematical reasoning
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10798995 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Francesca Biagioli (0000-0003-1842-690X) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 79 |
| Pages | 30-40 |
| Publication date | 2020-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-3681 • E-ISSN: 1879-2510 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.shpsa.2019.10.001 |
| PMID | 32072924 |
| OpenAlex | W2980098282 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 13 |
Cassirer's philosophical agenda revolved around what appears to be a paradoxical goal, that is, to reconcile the Kantian explanation of the possibility of knowledge with the conceptual changes of nineteenth and early twentieth-century science. This paper offers a new discussion of one way in which this paradox manifests itself in Cassirer's philosophy of mathematics. Cassirer articulated a unitary perspective on mathematics as an investigation of structures independently of the nature of individual objects making up those structures. However, this posed the problem of how to account for the applicability of abstract mathematical concepts to empirical reality. My suggestion is that Cassirer was able to address this problem by giving a transcendental account of mathematical reasoning, according to which the very formation of mathematical concepts provides an explanation of the extensibility of mathematical knowledge. In order to spell out what this argument entails, the first part of the paper considers how Cassirer positioned himself within the Marburg neo-Kantian debate over intellectual and sensible conditions of knowledge in 1902-1910. The second part compares what Cassirer says about mathematics in 1910 with some relevant examples of how structural procedures developed in nineteenth-century mathematics
Argument (complex analysis · Epistemology · Mathematical practice · Perspective (graphical · Philosophy of Mathematics · Reflexive pronoun · Sociology · Spell · Transcendental number · Unitary state · Computer Science · History and Theory of Mathematics · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science · Philosophy, Science, and History · Artificial Intelligence
Neo-Kantian conceptualism
Ernst Cassirer on historical thought and the demarcation problem of epistemology
The objectivity of mathematics in Cassirer’s symbol-theoretical approach
Mathematical sciences as symbolic form
Cassirer’s functionalist account of physical truth
Ernst Cassirer y la objetividad perceptual
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.2 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |