The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics Edmund Husserl and Jacob Klein [Hardcover]

Burt C. Hopkins presents the first in-depth study of the work of Edmund Husserl and Jacob Klein on the philosophical foundations of the logic of modern symbolic mathematics. Accounts of the philosophical origins of formalized conceptsespecially mathematical concepts and the process of mathematical abstraction that generates themhave been paramount to the development of phenomenology. Both Husserl and Klein independently concluded that it is impossible to separate the historical origin of the thought that generates the basic concepts of mathematics from their philosophical meanings. Hopkins explores how Husserl and Klein arrived at their conclusion and its philosophical implications for the modern project of formalizing all knowledge.

Hopkins detailed and careful readings of the texts make his book a source of numerous insights, and its erudition is breathtaking.This much needed book should go a long way both toward correcting the under-appreciation of Jacob Klein's brilliant work on the nature and historical origin of modern symbolic mathematics, and toward eliciting due attentio to the significance of that work for our interpretation of the modern scientific view of the world.The Origin of the Logic of Symbolic Mathematics initiates a radical clarification of Fran?ois Vietas 17th century mathematical introduction of the formal-symbolic, which marks the revolution that made and continues to make possible modern mathematics and logic. Through a philosophically subtle, clarifying, and exacting elaboration of Jacob Kleins Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra, Hopkins reveals flaws (and strengths) in Edmund Husserls thinking about numbers, the formal-symbolic, and the phenomenological foundation of the mathesis universalis.

Burt C. Hopkins is Professor of Philosophy at Seattle University. He is author of Intentionality in Husserl and Heidegger and The Philosophy of Husserl. He is founding editor (with Steven G. Crowell) of The New Yearbook lãb