RARE 1st: John Bigelow, 'The Reality of Numbers. A Physicalist’s Philosophy of M

by John Bigelow

$224 · Offered by eBay

First edition

A RARE and important book in the disciplines of mathematics and philosophy. Do numbers exist in a Platonic realm, independent of observers, waiting to be ‘discovered’? Or are they a human invention with a remarkable utility? It is a question mathematicians and philosophers have wrestled with since the Greeks, through to Bertrand Russell and modern thinkers. In what sense does the next unknown prime exist? Or does it need intelligent beings to instantiate it? Do new formulae or theories of numbers already exist in the fabric of the universe? There could hardly be more important questions. Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1988 (1st edition). Octavo, viii, 193 pages with numerous diagrams and graphs.

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Year: 1988
• Binding: Hardcover
• ISBN: 0198249578
• Condition: Very Good

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