Summary |
Philosophical discussions about mathematics have a long history, which basically coincides with the history of philosophy. The main historiographic divisions are thus the same as for philosophy in general, i.e. there is philosophy of mathematics in Ancient Philosophy, in Medieval Philosophy, in Early Modern Philosophy (16th-18th centuries), and in Late Modern Philosophy (19th-20th centuries). For a general introduction to the topic, including source material, see R. Marcus and M. McEvoy, eds., A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics: A Reader (Bloomsbury, 2016). For excerpts and translations from crucial authors since Kant, compare W. Ewald, ed., From Kant to Hilbert: A Source Book in the Foundations of Mathematics. Vols. I-II (Oxford University Press, 1996). And for the late 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, see P. Benacerraf and H. Putnam, eds., Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings (2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 1984). |