L e c t u re s o n t he Ph il o s o p h y

o f M a t h e ma t ic s

By

J AME S BY R N I E S H A W

C HI CA G O L O N DO N
T HE O P EN C O UR T P U BL I S HI N G C O M PA N Y
1
918
 C OP YRI G HT 19 18 BY
THE OPEN C OURT PUBL I S HIN G C o .

Al l Rig hts Rese rv e d

P u bl i she d J u ry
an a 1 918
 PR EFA C E

In the spring of 1 9 1 5 the auth or was invited t o

deli ver a c ourse of le ctures before a club of graduate
students of the U niversity of I llin ois on the subj ect
“
The Phil os ophy of M athematics This club c on sisted
.

of students w h o had h a d an or di nary c ollege c our se in

mathematics f or the m ost part This fact tended t o

,
.

narr ow the field t o be c overed inasmuch as the m ore

,

d ifficult questi on s of mathematical philos ophy had t o b e

omitted . It tended t o widen the field in the way of
mak ing it in telligible t o all students of fair mathematical
kn owledge which could be acc omplished best by c onsider
,

ing mathemati cs constantly in its hi st orical devel opment .

Thi s class of readers is the one directly ad dr essed in the

lectu res The large class of se condary and collegiate
.

teachers of mathematic s is als o addressed t o a great extent .

The a uth or cheris hes the hOp e that the p r of es

s ion a l phil o s op h er t oo may find s ome intere s t in t h ese

le ctures even th oug h th e m ore delicate pr oblems are

,

o mitted or only referred t o If the student of p hilo s ophy

.

finds enough mathematics h ere t o characterize the field

and give him a br oad View over it s hills a n d valleys he ,

will s ee it fr om the math emati cia n s p oint of view ’

.

M any ha v e already a ccomplished this n o tably in A merica , , ,

R oyce and in F rance a whole sch ool as E Bou t ro ux

, ,
.
,

Br u ns ch vicg M i l haud L eRoy Winter D uf umie r no t

, , , , ,

t o menti o n the phil o s opher mathematicians P oincaré , ,

P Tannery J Tannery Picard Borel P Bout roux a nd

.
, .
, , ,
.
,

o t h ers
. This view is ne cessary adequately t o a cc ount
f or mat hemati cs .
 P r ef a ce
The object of the lectures is t o c onsider the wh ole
field of mathematics in a gen eral way s o as t o arrive at a
,

clear u n derstan ding of exactly what mathematics un der

ta k es t o d o a n d h ow far it acc omplishes its purp ose ; t o
ascertain up on what presupp ositi ons if a ny which are
, ,

extra mathematical the mathematician depe n ds The

-
,
.

references at the ends of the chapters w ill enable the stu

de n t w h o desires t o go into the t opics treated farther
tha n the discussi ons of the text permit t o make a start
,

at least on such reading They are not intended t o be

.

exhaustive but merely suggestive S tudents sh ould con

,
.

s ult c onstantly the Ency cl op ed ic d es s cien ces ma théma tiqu es ,

the Pascal Rep er torium and the Ta s chenb uch of T eub ner
, .

The auth or has gathered his material fr om ma ny

s ources t o all of which he ack nowledges his i n debtedn ess
,
.

The origin al s ource where p ossible is give n f or all qu o ta

ti on s in order that the reader may find the origi nal setti ng .

It is h oped that n oti ons due t o other mathematicians have

bee n in every case e x actly expressed C ritics of the.

relative imp ortance attached herein t o many devel op

ments of mathematics are as k ed t o k eep in min d the pur
p ose of the lectures The syn optical table (
.
pp 1 9 6 9 7 ) is
.
—

given a s a suggestive guide t o the te x t a n d is d oubtless

,

incomplete in many ways .

J A ME S BYR N I E S HA W
 TABLE OF C O NTE N T S
CHA P TER

I . M EA NI N G OF THE PH HY
I L O S OPM ATHEMATICS
OE

II . N UMBE R A ND THE A RITHMETI ATI ON M ATHE

Z OP

MA TI C S

III . SP AC E AND THE G E OM TRI ATI ON

E Z OE M ATHE
MA TI C S

IV . RRAN GE ME NT S AND M ATHE MATICAL T A C TI C

A

L O GI S TI C A ND THE REDUC TI ON OF M ATHE MATIC S

T o L OGI C

OP E RAT O R S AND THE RE DUC TI ON OF M ATHE

MA TI CS T o A LG O RITHM S

VI I HYPE RNUM BE RS AND THE REDUC TI ON OF M ATHE

.

MA TI CS T o A LGE B RA

VI II PR OC E SS E S A ND THE RE DUC TI ON OF M ATHEMATI CS

.

T O T RA NS M U TATI ONS

Ix I NF ERE NCE S A ND THE REDU CTI ON OE M ATHE

.

MA TIC S To S YS TE M S OF L O GIC

x F O RM A S A C E N T RAL PRI NC IP LE

E T HE O RY OF I NVARIANT S
X II M ATHE MATI CS A S THE T HE O RY OF F UNC TI ONS
.

X III T HE O RY OE EQ U ATI ONS

.

X I V S OUR C E S OF M ATHE MATI CAL REALIT Y

.

X V T HE M ETH ODS OF M ATHE MATI CS

.

X VI VALID IT Y OF M ATHE MATI CS

.

C E NTRAL PRINC IP LES OF MATHE MATI C S

I ND E X
 C HAPTE R I
M E AN IN G OF T HE P H L I O S O PHY OF M A HT E MATI C S
When the th i nking per s on of the present day st ops t o
reflect up on the fact s of the wireless telegraph and the
l ong distance teleph one not t o menti on many other just
-
,

as imp orta n t mark s of human pr ogress and reme mbers

,

in hi s thinking that the existence of the wireless telegraph

is due t o deducti on s of M axwell by means of the orems
that depend up on the square r oot of m inus one and that ,

the p os s ibili ty of the l ong di s tan ce teleph one depends

-

up on inv e s tigati ons of Pupin by means of the orems that

depend m ore dir e ctly up on the m odern the ory of exp a n
si ons in fundamental functi ons he appreciates t o the full
,

th e p ower of thi s branch of h u man learning When b e

.

further learn s th at t he existence of conical refracti on w a s

p ointed ou t t o the physi cist by a mathematician b e
f ore it w a s disc ov ered in a lab orat ory ; t hat the existence
of N eptune was p ointed ou t t o the astr on omer bef ore

h is teles cope had n oti ced this wanderer in the re mote

heavens ; when he learn s that the mathematician by a
the ory related t o the s oluti on of th e pr oble m of finding
the r oots of an algebrai c equati on is able t o s ay t o the
“
mineral ogist y ou will never find m ore than th irty t w o -

”
distinct types of cry s tals when he meet s such facts
-

as these he must invariably a sk : Wh o is this magician

,
“

wh os e wand creates the mar v el ous and wh ose p enetra t

ing eye s earches the hidden corners of the u ni verse "
He may s ti l l listen with an amused smile t o the curi ous
pr operties of f our dimen s i onal spa ce ma y delight in the
-
,
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
escape fr om the weary wastes of infi nite space in a Rie
ma nnia n finite u n iverse may be bewildered by the M in ,

kows ki imaginary time axis may ex haust his imaginati on

-
,

in the vain ef f ort t o draw the crinkly curves but he will ,

n ot l ook up on a l l these as vagaries of a mystical dreamer .

He will rather desire t o see k permissi on of this Queen t o

“
enter her realm and expl ore it C on termin ous with .
’

Space and coeval with time is the kingdom of M athe

ma t ics ; within this range her d omi ni on is supreme ; o ther
w ise than acc ordi ng t o her order n ot hi ng ca n exi st ; in
c ontradicti on t o her laws n othing takes place O n her .

mysteri ous scr oll is t o be f ound written f or th ose w h o can

read it that which has been that which is and that which , ,
”
is t o c ome He wi l l wish t o kn ow what things bel ong
.

theret o the c ontent of this divisi on of human kn owledge

,

wh ose riches gr ow steadily richer year by year while ,

scientific the ories are mined assayed and w orked t o , ,

exhausti on ; while s ocial orders are lab ori ously built up ,

serve their usefulness a n d break d own int o ruins this —

, ,

the only permanen t organization c onstructed by the

human race Indeed he ha s f or m ore than twenty five
.
,
-

centurie s endeavored t o acc ount f or this A ntaeus w h o ,

acquires new stren gth whene ver he t ouches the earth ,

yet wh ose t oweri ng f orm disappears t o the average eye ,

in the Shini ng cl ouds The phil os ophers of the race have .

designed systems that charmed the mind f or a whil e ,

resti ng their f oundations up on the verities of mathe

ma t ics ; b u t they have turned ou t t o be only temp orary
structures occupying but a small part of the f oundati on s
,

of this ever expanding temple of learni n g

-
which h a s ,

bec ome m ore s olid while they have crumbled t o pieces .

I
S p t ti w d
o s oo e, Rep or t of the B r itis h A s s ocia tion f or the A d va nce
ment of S cience ,
1 8 78 , p .
31 .
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics 3

The c orrid ors of this temple are many already and it is ,

n o small task merely t o walk thr ough them ; but it als o

has l ofty t ow ers fr om which are mag n ificent views over

the wh ole range of the human intellect .

N o t only wil l ou r speculative think er desire t o k n o w

the c on tent of mathematics but he will hunt f or the central
,

principles that c ontr ol its evergreen gr ow th What d oes .

the mathematician seek t o k n ow " In the wilderness of

lines and surfaces in ge ometry in the puzzles of the ,

realms of integers on the slippery sands of the infini

,

t e s ima l in the desert of algebrai c field s what is it he is

, ,

l ooking f or " It is easy t o understand the guiding prin

cip l e s of the natural sciences but what are they in this
,

science of the immaterial " D o these principles appear

even in the small beginnings of mathematics or have ,

they emerged successively in the ev oluti on of the race "

The thinker will further ask What is the s our ce of,

mathematical reality " I s it a dream which simulates the

waking w orld s o cl osely in parts that we are deceived
int o thinking that it is als o real " I s there a L oh at
ch ev s kia n space or a M ink owski universe " C ould a
,

p owerful telesc ope Sh ow us the antip odes or c ould an ,

electr on wind its t ortu ous way ac cor di ng t o a law ex

pressed by t he Weierstrass non d ifierent ia b l e functi on "
-

Wh ere shall we trace the line all of wh ose p oints are at

zer o dista n ce fr om each other yet a l l distinct " Wh at
,

d oes a space with onl y seven p oints c on stituting its

entirety mean f or living existence or what creature c ould ,

have its bei ng in a binary m odular sp ace " Is it true that

m ost of the u n iverses c onceived in mathematics w ould
be as sterile of life as the planets that s w i ng in vacu ous
“
space " Is mathematics the s ub j ec t in which we never I

1
Rus sel l , I nterna tiona l M onthl y , 4 p . 84 .
4 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
kn ow what we are talking ab out nor whether what we ,
”
are s aying is true " D oe s mathematics rest on the
granite of the earth or on the mists of the air or on the
, ,

fancies of the p oet " F r om A rchimedes t o E n riques ,

fr om Plat o t o Russell fr om the Eleatics t o Kant fr om

, ,

Her a cl eitos t o Bergs on phil os ophers have endeav ored t o

,

find an answer t o these questi ons M athematics at on e .

,

peri od or an other has been a bran ch of physics of phi

, ,

l os op hy of psych ol ogy ; but has Pol igna c s s en t en ce

’ I
,

S ophia e germa n a M a thes is ever been surpassed "

In the N orse myth ol ogy there was an ash tree Yggd ra ,

Sil which s upp orted the universe I t s three r oots were

, .

fast in the three realms where ab ode the shades of the

dead the race of mank ind and the fr ost giants I t s
, ,
-
.

l ofty t op w a s in the heavens where ab ode the eagle of ,

wisd om a n d in the f our corners gamb oled f our s tags We

,
.

may well take this symb ol as a v ery fair representati on Of

—
mathematic s the sequ oia that supp orts the universe of
kn owledge It derives its stability fr om the r oots that
.

it s ends ou t i n t o the laws of nature int o the reas oning ,

‘

Of men int o the accumulated learning of the dead I t s

,
.

trunk and branches have been built during the past ages
ou t of the fibers of l ogic ; its f oliage is in the atm o sphere

of abstracti on ; it s infl orescence is the outburst of the

livi ng imaginati on F r om its dizzy summit ge nius takes
.

it s flight and in its wealth of v erdure it s dev otees find

,

an everlasting h oliday .

O ur speculative thinker h owever will desire t o know , ,

s omethi n g besides th e c onte n t the pri n ciples and the , ,

reality of mathematics He will ask what are the meth ods

.

pursued in this field of investigati on In the lab orat ory .

1
Qu ot e d by C ou m ot as the ep igr a p h of t he Tra ité él émenta ir e d e
l a theor ie d es f oncti ons
’

et da ca l cn l infinites ima l , fr m Ant Lu cre t

o i -
.

l ib iv, vs 1 0 8 3
. . .
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics 5

he sees glitteri ng brass and nets of wires Telesc opes .

,

micr osc opes spectr osc opes balances electr ometers all
, , , ,

the parapher n alia of m odern science are visible a nd have

their obvi ous use s Bu t in the mathematical lab orat ory
.

he will s ee perhaps a few curi ous m odels of surfaces or

curves or a few drawi ngs or a handful of instrume n ts f or
, ,

c omputati onal purp oses ; but where is the apparatus f or

the disc overy of the m oment ous facts and laws of this
en orm ous field of learning " He may perchance watch
the mathematician surreptitiously as he sits with a h ,

s t ra c t ed mien his mental eye turned inward up on s ome

,

intricate c onstructi on of symb ols and f ormulae ; he may

even catch th e flash of triumph when that eye sees the
thread of the c onnecti on desir ed O r he may build one .

of Jev ons l ogical machines and feed int o it premises

’
,

terms axi oms p ostulates hier oglyphical symb ols a nd

, , , ,

may endeavor t o c oll ect the stream of deducti ons that

p our f orth Yet he wi l l find that h ehas not acc ounted
.

f or the results of mathematics that many Of its finest ,

fl owers bl oom with out cause mu ch of its richest g old was ,

n ot f ound by a pr ospect or or gr ound ou t in a stamp mill ; ,

that there is a sp ontaneity which eludes analysis wh ose ,

sudden outbursts are not the result of meth od He will .

find that while he may learn the way t o prepare his i n tel
,

lectual fields t o rem ove the weeds and t o pulverize the

, ,

s oil while he may plant the seeds there may be no cr op

, , ,

or there may spri n g up s t r a ng e a n d bewilderi n g f orms as if

'

s ome genie s t ouch had br ought them f orth fr om realms

’

he k n ew not of .

After all these questi on s have been answered we may ,

then con sider the right of this Q ueen of all the sciences t o I

G a us s , q uot e d by S a r t oriou s v on Wa l t ers h a u s en Ga us s zn m

p 79
,

Ged achtnis s . .
6 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
rule Has mathemati cs a realm apart fr om human life
.
,

fitting daily experie n ce in places cl osely en ough t o be of

u s e but still n o t at all identical with it ; or is it indeed the
, , ,

very same as the realm of human life " I s the dif f ere n tial
equati on only a refi n ement u p on the real law of physics ,

the irrati on al only an appr oximati on t o the actual number

in nature " I S the universe stable or will it s ome day dis
appear wind its way back int o cha os leaving n othing but
, ,

the truths of mathematics still sta n ding " I S it true that

chance d oes not exist really but only in seemi ng or is ,

everythi ng purely chance and are the laws Of the u ni ,

v erse merely the curves which we have drawn thr ough a

ra n d om few of an infinitely compact s et of p oints "
The con siderati on of these pr oblems is what we mean
by the phil os ophy of mathematics If we can arrive at .

s ome ans w er partial th ough it may be it certainly w ould

, ,

be w orth while S aid Hil b er t “

.M athematical scien ce ,
I

is in my opin i on an indivisible wh ole an orga n ism W h ose

, , ,

vitality is conditi oned up on the connection of it s parts ”

.

It may theref ore be studied in the same way a s any other

o rganism and such study of a branch of human kn owledge
,

is what we shall u n dersta n d by phil o s ophy .

We will theref ore classify the pr oblems we purpose t o

c onsider as f ollows
I The c ontent of mathematics and its evolution
.

2 The central principles of mathematics

.

3 The . s ource of the reality of mathematics

4 The me th ods of m
. athematics
5 The . regi on s o f validity of mathematic s

In c on n ecti on with each of the first f our classes we shall

find that definiti ons of mathematics have been given which
were only partial The varied character of its c ontent.

Hl i b rt
e ,
B ul l . A mer . M a th . S oc
. 8 ( 1 90 2 p .
4 78 .
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics 7

makes it imp ossible t o reduce all mathematics t o either

arithmetic ge ometry l ogistic calculus Of operati on s
, , , ,

algebra or transmutation s N or ca n we define it a ny

,
.

m ore successfully as a study of f orm or of invariance or of , ,

functi onality or of the ory of equati on s It has been the

,
.

e ff ort Of s ome t o defi n e it in terms of its s ources but it is ,

n o t p o ssible t o limit it t o the phen omena of either the

natural w orld the w orld of u n iversals or the mental

, ,

w orld D efiniti ons that are based up on its meth ods are
.

n o m ore successful W hether we emphasize its scientific

,

pr ocedure in observati on generalizati on and anal ogy or , , ,

its intuitive insight i n t o the nature of things or it s d ed uc ,

tive chains wh ose invulnerable links supp ort the weight

of m odern scien ce ; n or yet is it wh olly the sp on tane ou s

pr odu c t of the imaginati on of an artist wh ose material

is not the s olid gra nite of the architect the fl owing marble ,

of the sculpt or the brilliant pigme n t of the painter

,
the ,

rippl ing la nguage of the p oet or the pulsing air of the ,

musician but is the deli cate e ther of pure th ought We

,
.

cann o t define it either by it s applicability t o the w orld at

large in any realm of validity F or it owes its true
,
“
.
I

existen ce t o a p urely idealistic need which indeed is , , ,

akin t o the need of a kn owledge of nature and t o it s ,

s atisfacti on directly ser v iceable but neither in it has it s ,

r oot nor will e v er be merged therein e ver S O little

,
”
,
.

In n one of these ways may it be defined f or it is all these ,

and m ore It may be studied in its vari ous aspects j ust

.

as man may be s tudied but no defi n iti on based up on any

,

on e aspect will be s ufli cien t t o include t h e living creature

itself It may be defined onl y by being described just

.
,

as we may not define but must describe a giant sequ oia

, ,
.

M athematics bec omes thus indepe ndent of any other

Pring s heim, J a hr b D ents ch . . M a th Ver . .
,
13 p .
380 .
8 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
bran ch of h uman kn owledge It is au t onomous and in .
,

itself mu s t be s ought it s nature it s stru cture it s law s , ,

of being N ot in phil os ophy not in scien ce n ot in p s y

.
, ,

ch ol ogy not in l ogi c can we di s c over these t hings b u t

, , ,

only in math ematics It d oe s not yield u s tran s cendental

.

s pace or time or the categ orie s of reas on

,
It d oe s not .

tell u s whether physical space is Euclidean Riemannian , ,

or L ob a t ch ev s kia n It d oe s n ot s ay whether onl y l ocal

.

time exist s all over the physical univ erse It d oe s not .

decree the way of a cell of pr ot oplasm or the l ogarithm Of

a sensati on It is itself a living thing devel oping ac cord
.
,

ing t o its ow n nature and f or its ow n ends e vol ving , ,

thr ough the centuries yet leav ing it s record s m ore imper
,

ish a b l e than the creatures of ge ol ogy A s s uch we will .

study it .

We will inspe ct the pr oblem s of the phil os ophy of

math e matics a little m ore cl osely and thus will s ee their
content s We find that the s ubject matter of mathe
.
-

maties can all be put int o one or an other of the divisi ons
f oll owing (see table p 1 9 6 ) , .

1 N umb e r s l ea din g t o a ri thmet i c

.
,

S TATIC 2 F igu res l ea din g t o g e omet ry

M ATHEMATICS
.
,

3 A rr a ng ements l ea di n g t o t a cti c
.
,

4 Prop osi t i on s l e a din g t o logi st i c

.
,

5 O p e r a
. t or s l e a di n g t o o p e r a t i on a,
l c a l cul us
D YNAMI C 6 H yp e.r n u m b e r s l e a di n g t o a l gebra ,

M ATHEMATI CS 7 P r o cesses
. l e a di n g t o t r a n s m ut,
a t i on s
8 S y stems l ea di ng t o g enera l in fe r ence
.
,

These d if ferent divisi ons will be c onsidered in s ome detail

in the succeeding chapters It is s ufli cient here t o s a y .

that by number s is mean t n ot only the d omain of integers , ,

but a ny general ensemble at least in certain aspect s ,

.

By figures is meant the aggregate of con s tructi ons in spa ce ,

IO Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
or many t o many ways And als o in each divisi on we
- -
.

shall find that the most imp ortant questi on s are reducible
t o finding the class of s oluti ons of equati on s or pr op o siti on s
of given chara c ters .

The s ources of mathematical reality will be f ou n d t o

have been ascribed at v ari ous peri ods t o f our differe n t
w orlds a s f oll ows :
,

1 The natural world of phen omena a reducti on of

.
,

mathematics t o physics .

2 The w orld of universals a reducti on t o l ogic

.
, .

3 The
. w o rld of mental activity a reducti o n t o p sy ,

ch ol ogy .

4 The creative acti on of the intellect a reducti on t o

.
,

Creative e v oluti on .

Each of these ascripti ons or reducti ons has or has had , ,

its earnest advocates and n aturally each c ontains s om e ,

tru th N O one is wh olly true t o the exclusi on of the

.

o thers as we will try t o Sh ow M athematics is not

,
.

entirely a the ory of space and time a n d number of the ,

nature of a the ory of light ele c tricity and mag n etism I t , ,

.

“
is n o t merely the natural hist ory of an ex is t ing inner I

w orld of pure th ought where all entia dwell where is every, ,

type of order and ma nn er of c orrelati on and variety of

relati onship in t his i nfinite ensemble of eternal
verities whence if there be one c osm os or ma ny of them
, ,

each deri v es its character and m ode of being there

that the spirit Of mathesis has its h ome and life I t is
n ot the study simply of f orms that the mi n d imp oses up o n

the helpless universe of se n se nor is it the study of the ,

2

laws of th ought N or equally is the spirit of mathe

3
.

1
K y r Hibb t J
e se ,
er our na l , 3 ( 1 9 04 p .
313 .

2
K t C itiq f P
an , r ue o ur e Rea s on .

3 Bool e, L a ws of Thought .
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics 11

ma t ics the g oddess A thena spru ng fr om the head of ,

Z eus a n ast ou ndi ng miracle in the u n iverse of th ought

—

but is rather spirit a nimating flesh .

The meth ods of mathematics are reducible t o f our as ,

f oll ows
1 .S cientific leading t o generalizati ons of wideni ng
,

s cope .

2 .Intuitive leadi ng t o a n insight int o subtler depths

,
.

3 .D eductive leading t o a permanent statement and

,

rig or ous f orm .

4 I n ventive leading t o the ideal element and crea

.
,

ti on of n ew realms .

N o on e of these is used by any on e mathematician t o

the exclusi on of the others A bril liant example is P oin .

“
car e w h o says in his memoir on The Partial D iff erential
,
I

” “
Equati on s Of Physics If one l ooks at the d ifl er en t
pr oblems of the i n tegral calculus which arise n atur ally
whe n he wishes t o g o deep int o the diff erent parts of
physics it is imp ossible not t o be struck by the a n al ogies
,

existing Whether it be electr ostatics or electr odynamics

.
,

the pr opagati on of heat Optics elasticity or hy d rod y , , ,

n a mics we are led al w ays t o d ifl er en t ia l equati ons of the

,
”
same family P oincaré was a pr of ound geniu s in his
.

intuitive grasp of the essence of any pr oblem he con

s id er ed His reas oning wa s of c ourse strictly l ogical
.
, ,
.

A nd his creati on s in arithmetic invariants asympt otic ,

exp a n si ons fu n damental fu n cti ons d ouble residues a n d

, , ,

F uchsian fu ncti on s are now classic If one were in ,

.

d oub t as t o the value of mathematics as a branch of

study he has but t o c onsider these d ifl eren t ways in
,

which a mathematician must thi nk in his researches ,

in order t o c ome t o the c onclusi on that alm ost every p ow er

1
Poinca e, A mer r . J our . M a th , 1 2 p . 21 1 .
12 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of the mind is trained by the s tudy of mathematics .
‘

Perhaps n o other study is S O su ccessful in devel opi ng

'

particularly the p ower of inventi on or ha d we better ,

s a y in stimulating the gr ow th of the p ower of inventi on

,

that fruitful ability of the mind t o bear new creatures of ,

th ought .

We now have bef ore u s a preliminary survey of the

regi on we shall traverse and the outlines of its main ,

feature s In connecti on with the traverse it will be

.

nece s sary t o c onsider s ome of the hist ory of the develop

ment of these main features f or which it is well t o refer ,

t o the standard texts There are several v ery suggestive .

2

addre s s es bef ore vari ous s ocietie s which will be useful

f or their dif ferent p oints of V iew ; a partial list of these
f oll ows
Roy ce The S ciences of the I dea l S cience 2 0
,
pp , , .

— 62
4 49 4
Boche r ,
“
Th e F und a ment a l C oncepti on s a nd M ethod s of

M a thema t i cs ,
”
B ul l . A mer . M a th . S oc . I I

-
PP 11 5 135

Moore ,
“
On the Found a t ions of M a thema t i cs ,
B ul l A mer . . M a th .

S oc , 9 — 2
pp 4 0 2 4 4 .

Pring s heim,
“
Ueb e r Wer t und an gebl i he c n Un we r t de r
M a t hemet ik ,
”
J a hr b . D euts ch . M a th . Ver .
,
13 ( 1 9 04 )
— 82
pp 357 3
Pi c rd
a ,
“
the D evel opment Of M a thema ti ca l A na l ysi s a nd
On
Rel a t i on t o Other S ci ences Bu l l A mer M a th S oc
”
It s ,
. . . .
,

11 pp .
—
4 04 4 2 6 .

Vol te rr a, L es ma th ma t q ues d a n s l es
“
é i sci ences bi l gi q ues
o o et

soci a l es ,
”
Revu e d n M ois , 1 pp . 1 —2 0 .

Poinca r e des m th é m t iq ues B l l A mer M a th

“ ’
,
L Av enir a a ,
u . . .

S oc .
,
12 pp 4 6 —. 2 0 2 0 .

1
Ky r Si
e se ,
c ence (N w S ri ) 3 5
e e p 64 5 es ,
. .

S p rt i l rl y
ee a cu a , Ency cl opédie (l es sciences ma thema tiqu es .
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics 13

S ome thers will be referred t o in later chapters In

o .

this connecti on it may be said that one sh ould read t he

addresses of the presidents and o ther ofli cer s bef ore such
meetings as th ose of the A merican A ss ociati on f or the
A dvan cement Of S cience the A merican M athematical
,

S ociety the British A ss ociati on f or the A dvanceme n t of

,

S cience the L ond on M athematical S ociety the vari ous

, ,

F es ts chrif ten in Germany A cadémie des S cie n ces of

,

F ra nce the internati onal c ongresses and the like In

, ,
.

this way he bec omes acquai n ted with the best th ought
of the mathematicians of the w orld regarding mathe

ma t ics itself and he will c ome t o s ee it fr om every a ngle

,
.

Books on the phil os ophy of mathematics are few .

The latest is Bruns chvicg s L es Eta p es d e l a phil os ophic

’

ma thé ma tiq u e The writi ngs of P oinca r e and of Picard

.

o n science sh ould be c onsulted A suggestive b ook is

.

Winter s P hil os op hie d es ma thema tiqu es R efere n ces may

’ ’

be f ou n d in these t o a l ong series of articles of p olemic

nature in the Revu e d e mé ta p hy s iqu e et mora l e M any .

articles have appeared in the M onis t It is on t h e wh ole.

safe t o s a y that the phil os ophy of mathematics has

c ome int o its ow n but rece n tly and is at last dis
e n ta ngled fr om the snares of metaphysical discussi on s
and the pr ocedures of tra n scendental phil os ophy and free ,

t o utilize all that has been d one in the c ourse Of the ages ,

pr oceedi ng h owever he n cef orward on it s i ndepe n de n t

, ,

path The phil os opher must i n deed accept its results

.
, ,

in his ow n general scheme and acc ount f or them He .

may make its phil os ophy as he has d on e in the c ourse

,

of hist ory ,
the basis f or his ow n system but he ca nnot ,

acc ount f or the past of mathematics on a ny basis but its

ow n nor can he predi c t its future
, .
 C HA PTE R II
N UM B E R AN D T HE A R ITHM E TIZATION OF
M A THE MATI CS

The hist ory of the devel opment of the idea of number

is on e of the m ost i n structive we meet in the study
of mathematics F r om th e time of B abyl on a nd very
.
,

likely l ong bef ore the c omm on pr ope rties of integers were
,

pretty well k n own It must have been f or a l ong time

.

in that f org otten peri od of the w orld s hist ory that men
’

s ought p ower over their fell ows by secret k n owledge ,

a n d particularly by k n owledge Of figures We fin d f or .

,

example the manuscript of Ah mes dati ng fr om rem otest

, ,

“
times entitled K n owledge of Al l D ark Thi ngs
,
”
The .

Babyl on ia n s had tables of squares a n d cubes s ome kn owl ,

edge oi pr ogressi on s rules f or areas and elementary

, ,

k nowledge of the circles of the stars This kn owledge had

.

devel oped thr ough the ages as man faced the w orld a n d
it s pr oblems The struggle f or e x istence made number
.

necessary a nd the f ortunes of dynasties made a study of

,

the stars a nd what they c ould tell Of the future a luxury

that c ould only be b ought fr om th ose w h o had leisure
f or intellectual e ff ort Wh at arithmetic c on sisted of in
.

the earliest times ca n only b e c onjectured fr om what we

find now in the least e nlighten ed tribes of the w orld .

F r om the barter of g oods s k in s f or b olts of calico or

—

c oc oanuts f or glass beads t o the buyi ng a nd selli ng of

—

wheat in the pit is a l ong stretch a n d is p ossible only by

the u s e of number .

Wh oever first i nve n ted n umber was a genius of the

highest order jus t a s w a s he w h o first invented language
,
.
 Nu mber a nd A rithmetiza ti on 15

Words enable u S t o dispen s e with objects or th eir rep res en

t a t ion s and yet t o ma k e use of objects in s o far as w ords
represe n t them N umbers go farther than d o mere w ords
.
,

f or they e nable us t o refer t o the disti n cti on between

objects with out the n ecessity of ide n tifying the object s
,
.

T o arrive at a number we d o n ot perf or m an act of a b s t ra c

“ ”
ti on as w hen we reach the general term d og f or ex
, ,

ample In th is w e ign ore all the disti n cti ons between

.

diff erent d ogs and retai n only the c omm on characteristics

that all d ogs p o ssess Bu t when we thi nk of five d ogs f or
.
,
“ ”
example we are not thinki ng of the general term d og
, ,

but of the individual even th ough unide n tified d ogs We , ,

.

are enabled by the inventi on of the number 5 t o keep the

individuals distinct and yet are not obliged t o pr odu ce
,

the descripti on s of the individuals Indeed a ny five .

,

i ndividuals w ould answer A ny t w o c ollecti on s would .

be said t o have the same number if they could be matched

t ogether e x actly i nd ividual t o individual A g ood ex
,
.

ample is that of the bank dep osit and the safety dep osit
b ox . If one puts his m oney int o the b ox he draws ou t ,

eventually the same c oi n s If he dep osits his m oney .

in the bank he draws ou t eventually coi n s which in all

,

pr obability are not any of them the s ame that were

dep osited but whi ch yet have the same value The
,
.

b ookkeeper s acc ou n t is the c ontr olling fact or and this is

’
,

a numerical acc ount The inve n ti on of number e n ables .

the b ookkeeper t o c ontr ol the actual m oney empl oyed

with out even seei ng any of it .

S o far back d oe s the inventi on of number g o in its

hist ory that s ome have c ontended that it is not a n inven
ti on of the intellect but an inn ate end owment of it , .

K r onecker says : God made integers all else is the

“ I
,

1
Weber , J a hr b D euts ch
. . M a th Ver . .
,
2 (1 89 1 p . 1 9.
16 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
work of ma n Yet the hist ory of the e voluti on of the
o ther kind s of numbers leads us t o think that the integer

is n o excepti on t o the others but had its origin in that ,

mysteri ous creative p ower of the intellect which we Shall , ,

find permeate s all the hist ory of mathematics

, .

We may c onsider that the first stage of devel opment of

number culmi nated in the sch ool of Pythag oras pre ,

s u ma b l y ab out 5 00 B C This sch ool of phil os ophy was a

. .

fratern ity as well as a sch ool and regarded the secrets of

, ,

mathematics as t oo Sacred f or the uni n itiated They tried .

t o red u ce the universe t o number ascribing my s tic p owers ,

t o the di ff erent small i n tegers Thus 1 0 was a marvel ou s .

number because it i n cluded fiv e od d numbers and five ,

even numbers 5 itself being the mystic number of the

,

pentagra m ; further 1 0 included five primes and five

, ,

c omp osites and is the s um of an odd number an even

, ,

number an even od d nu mber and an even even number

,
-
,
-
.

They divided numbers int o perfect abundant and , ,

deficient A perfect number is the s u m of all it s divis or s

.

exclusive of itsel f an abundant number is less than the

,

s um of its divis ors and a deficient number ex ceeds th e

,

s u m of its divis ors F or example .

,

and is thus an abundant number while and ,

is a deficient number The first perfe ct n umber is

.

the next is 2 8 : It w a s
sh wn in Euclid s time that if
o
’
— 1 is prime then ,

the n umber 1 ) is perfect This f ormula includes .

the t w o number s 6 and 2 8 given ab ove the n ext number , ,

being 4 9 6 It is not kn own that there exist a ny perfect

.

number s which are od d but if there are s uch several , , ,

the orem s have been pr oved t o h old f or them The .

pr operties relating t o the divis ors of a number were als o

extended t o t w o nu mbers Tw o n umber s were called .
18 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
The beauty of the universe was swall owed up in the
inextricable c onf usi on of the h opelessly irrati onal The .

awful secret was divulged finally by a renegade member ,

w h o met a pr ompt and just punishment in the waves of

the M editerranean H owe v er the secret was ou t and .
,

mank ind sh oulder ed again it s weary burden of explaining

the uni v erse .

In re cent times there have been attempt s t o reinstate

the integer as the only real number all else being merely ,

symb olic Kr onecker f or instance endeavored t o place

.
, ,

the wh ole the ory of fracti ons irrati onal s r oots of algebraic , ,

equati on s and other parts of mathematics on the integer

,

a s basis by means of the intr oducti on of c ongruences

,
.

F or example if we replace by 0 the parenthesis ( 5 90 3 ) —

,

wherever it occurs and if we reduce all expressi ons con ,

taining x and c onsisting at m ost of a p olyn omial divided

,

by a p olyn omial by means of this substituti on of zer o, ,

we acc omplish exactly the same thing as if we directly

s et By the u s e of the c ongruence we av oid defining
what we mean by a fracti on The s ame meth od of p ro .

ced ur e extended enables us t o restate many things in

algebra it is quite true Bu t on the wh ole we have

,
.

S hifted the d ifli cul ty and not a nnihilated it We find .

later in the preface of the D iopha ntis che A ppr oxima tionen
,

of M ink owski
“
the asserti on Integers are the f ountain
, ,
”
head of all mathematics Bu t in reply t o these extreme s
.

w e have the statement of Hob s on : I

An ex t r eme theory of a ri thmet iz a t i on h a s b een a dvoca te d

by K ronecke r His id ea l i s tha t eve ry theorem in
.

a n a l y s i s Sha ll b e st a te d a s a r el a t i on b et w een i n te gra l n umb e r s

onl y ,
the te rminol ogy i nvol ved in the u se of nega tive f ra c ,

t iona l a nd irr a t i on a l numb e r s b e i n g en t ir el y r emoved

,
T hi s .

1
Theory f
o F unctions f
o . a Rea l Va ria bl e, p . 21 .
 Number a nd A rithmetiza ti on 1 9

id ea l , i f it wer p ibl t tt i it w l d m u t t r v rs l
e os s e o a a n ,
ou a o n o a e e a

o f the tu l hi t ri c l u r e whi h the sci c h pu r su d ;

ac a s o a co s c en e as e

for a l l ctu l pr gr
a ha d p d d up uc s ive g r l iz
o es s as e en e on s ce s en e a a

t i s f th
on o ti f u mb r
e no l th gh th s g
on o r l iz t i s
n e ,
a ou e e en e a a on

a re no w r g rd d e ul t i m tel y d p d e t t h wh l u mb r
a e as a e en n on e o e n e

for th ir f u d ti
e o Thn b d me t f the i stim b l e
a on . e a an on n o ne a

a dv t g f the f rm l i
an a e o l y i s f t h ex t s i s f the
o a us e n a na s o e en on o

no ti on o f umb r c u l d
n l y b e h r cte riz e d
e o sp c i s f on c a a as a e e o

m th m t i l N ih ili s m
a e a ca .

The sec ond stage in the evoluti on of number was

entered when fracti ons were invented S exagesimal frac .

ti ons were in u s e by the Babyl onian astr on omers a n d

survive in our degrees mi nutes and sec onds The Egy p , ,
.

tians used u n it fracti ons which preserve the u n derlyi ng ,

n oti on of subdivisi on of a unit int o equal parts S ome .

tables f or the necessary reducti on s of c ombi n ati on s arising

were c omputed and used The Greeks on the o ther han d .
, ,

shunned fracti on s and did not have the idea of fracti on as

divisi on or as rati o very clearly in evide n ce The rati os of .

Euclid were actually orders of simulta n e ous arra ngeme n ts

of p oi n ts al ong a li n e a n d n o t the n o ti on of fracti on as we ,

n ow have it In fact the actual dista n ces bet w een the

.
,

o rdered p oints might be arbitrary F or example if we .

,

were t o n ame a series of p oints as yell ow p oints f or ,

multiples of 2 a no ther as blue p oi n ts f or multiples of 3

, , ,

a n d still an o ther as green p oi n ts f or multiples of 6 the n the , ,

rati o of 2 t o 3 w ould mean t o Euclid an arra ngement

c on sisting of c ol ored p oints such as gr een y el l ow b l u e , , , ,

y el l ow , gr een ,
y el l ow ,
b l u e, y el l ow , gr een
, y
el l ow ,
b l u e , y el l ow
c orresp ondi ng t o the numbers 0 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 1 0 ,
1 2 , 1 4, 1 5 ,
We c ould just as well have made
1 6, 1 8 .

the c ol ored p oi n ts c orresp ond t o the numbers 0 4 6 8 1 2 , , , , ,

16 18 ,
20 24 2 8 30 3 2 3 6
, , ,
the Euclidean rati o of
, , ,
20 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
the number s 4 and 6 Hence we declare that the t w o .

rati os that is the arrangements are the same The

, , , .

distances between the numbers have n othing t o d o with

the order .

This n oti on of order was ingeni ous a nd leads t o fruitful

devel opme n ts b ut it is not the Simple n oti on of rati o we
,

have now which has been much m ore fruitful Indeed

,
.
,

the i n tr oducti on of such a symb ol as with the under

lyi ng idea that it implies mar k s the e n tra n ce of the min d,

up on a n ew stage of devel opment in its mathematical

ability The imp orta n ce of this step indeed is fully a s
.
, ,

great as that of the inventi on of the A rabic n o tati on f or

numbers This creati on of rati o gave the mi n d perfect
.

freed om in carryi ng ou t divisi on which became al w ays ,

p ossible Every number w ould divide every o ther n u m

.

ber f or at this time zer o w as not yet existent

,
.

It is easily evident that the list of integers is the same

as the list of rati os wh ose numerat ors are exactly divisible
by their den omin at ors and we are able t o identify the,

class of integers (already e x isti ng ) with this subclass of

— —
the new entities the rati os that we have created This .

is a real identificati on f or we can easily c onclude by , ,

carefully considering the matter that multiplicati on as , ,

3 by 4 f or example is onl y illustrated by the arrangement

, ,

of f our r ows of three stars each and d oes n o t c on sist in the ,

arrangement or in the additi on of f our 3 s t ogether ;

,
’

c onsequently di visi on of 1 2 by 4 d oes not c onsist in th e

separati on of 1 2 stars i n t o 4 r ows or in the sub tracti on of ,

4 stars fr om 1 2 stars as ma n y as 3 times with n one left

over Al l this ma n ipulati on of objects may have led t o
.

the creati on of number additi on divisi on etc but the , , ,

.
,

c oncrete acti on merely furnishes the occasi on f or the us e of

the mathemati cs involv ed and neither pr ove s the re s ult ,
 Number a nd A r ithmetiza ti on 21

n or d oes it define the mathematic s If one were t o say .

,
”
Bri ng me a teacup and the result of the request sh ould
“
,

be the p ossessi on of the teacup the w ord s used their , ,

inflecti ons their order are not pr oved by the teacup nor
, , ,

d oes the a cti on f orce one t o u s e th ose terms If one were .

n o t E n glish the result c ould be secured only by using a

,

very dif ferent se n tence La nguage is an inventi on of the

.

mi nd t o enable man t o react up on his fell ow s S o t oo .

, ,

mathematics is an inve n ti on of the mi n d different fr om ,

language t o enable it t o ha ndle its pr oblems of existe n ce

,
.

It is true that b oth have gr own that b oth are the result ,

of circumstances t o a c onsi d erable degree that neither ,

is purely arbitrary ; but it is equally true that neither is an

abs olute ingredient of the external w orld a n alyzed ou t ,

by abstracti on that neither is an a pri ori i ngredient of

,

mentality that n either arises fr om a w orld of u n iversals

,
.

Each is the child of the sp ontaneity of the mind in its

uni on with the natural w orld R obins on C rus oe did not .

need a language a n d a S outh S ea Islander needs very

,

little if any math ematics

, ,
.

The th ird stage in the devel opment of number is the

inventi on of the inc ommensurable This has bec ome .

eventually the irrati onal In the inc ommensurable we .

deal with magnitudes which are c ompared with each

o ther by the Euclid pr ocess th e same as the well kn own ,
-

pr ocess f or fin ding the greatest c omm on divis or of t w o

integers Thi s pr ocess when it c omes t o an end leads
.
, ,

t o an expressi on of one mag n itude in terms of the o ther

by means of a c on tinued fracti on If it d oes not c ome t o .

a n end it leads t o representati on of on e in terms of the

,

o ther as an infi nite c ontinued fracti on In trying t o fin d .

the measure of the diag onal of a rectangle in terms of the

s ides th e Greek s s oon ca me a cr os s the s quare r oots of
22 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
numbers The diagon al of a square h a s no i n tegral n or
.

fracti onal rati o t o the side C onsequently this very Simple

.

entity already in the universe is not explai n able in terms

of integers a n d the Pythag orean the ory of the numerical
,

structure of the u n iverse brea k s d own although much of ,

the m odern physics might be s o c onstrued as t o rest ore

this theory in natural science .

When we study the irrati onal number the first con ,

siderati on is the m ode of representing an irrati onal .

We can of c ourse use particular symb ols as e or or V 5 , , ,

7r
,

but the supply w ould s oon run sh ort n ot t o speak of the

,

imp ossibility of keepi ng such an en orm ous number of

special symb ols in mind or of orderi ng them in any way .

The usual meth ods of represe n ti ng the irrati onal c onsist

of e x pressi on s of which the irrati onal is the limit To .

acc omplish this we s e t d own a sequence of f ormulae such ,

that the general or n th member of the sequence can be

f ou n d by s ome law of c on structi on the members of the
,

sequence successively appr oaching cl oser t o a n d ulti ,

mately i n defi n itely cl ose t o a limit which limit is the

, ,

irrati onal Thus the sequence

.

—
1 , +a I+
x x + a+ a+ a

appr oaches the irrati on al number e a nd the sequence ,

of terms obtai n ed by st oppin g at vari ous places in the

c on tin ued fracti on

is the irrati onal n umber 4/ A sequence of this ki n d

7r .

may be determi n ed by any numerical i nfi nite series that ,

is by successive additi ons ; or by a ny infinite c on tin ued

,

fraction ; or by other iterated pr ocesses of combinati on

 Number a nd A r ithmetiz a ti on 2 3

of numbers determined acc ordi ng t o definite laws We .

include in this list of c ourse the expressi ons by means of

, ,

defi nite integrals .

The inventi on of the sequence as a n i nfi nite series is

due t o M e ray and was als o later devel oped by C a n t or ,

the n oti on of the latter bei ng that the seque n ce itself w as

the irrati onal number H owever we must discrimi nate
.
,

between the irrati onal n umber which is an ideal inventi on ,

of the mind and the symb olism which enables us t o

,

ide n tify the same irrati onal u nder vari ous f orms ; just
as we discrimi nate between the number 2 a n d the r ep r e
s en t a t ion of 2 by figures or by the R oman II The crea .

ti on of the irrati onal with the inventi on of a machi n e which

enables us t o handle irrati onals enables the mi n d eff ec
t iv el y t o carry ou t many pr ocesses that o therwise w ould
be imp ossible ; as f or example fi ndi n g the r oots of alge
, ,

brai e or other equati ons the calculati on of tra n scende n tals

,

of vari ous kinds and s o f orth

,
.

With the intr oducti on of the sequence as a means of

determinin g irrati onals began a pr ocess called the
,
”
arithmetizati on of mathematics The object in view .

was that of the effectual reducti on of all statements

in mathematics t o statements inv olving only rati onal
numbers and s equences of rati onal n umbers It was .

pr oved that a seque n ce of irrati onal numbers which

defined a limit c ould be replaced by a sequence of rati onal
numbers defi n i ng the s ame limit s o that it seemed that an ,

end t o the exte n si on of the n oti on of number had been

reached in the irrati onal number A n attempt was made .

by D uB ois —Rey mond t o give back its place t o the incom

I

mensurable but little success f oll owed the attempt

,
.

The natural outc ome of the full arithmetizati on of

1
D ie A l l gemeine F unctionentheorie, 1 88 2 .
24 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
mathematic s w a s the purely n ominal character it gav e the
s ubje c t .Thus we find Hel mh ol tz asserting that We “ I

may c onsider numbers t o be a serie s of signs arbitrarily

ch osen but t o which apply a determined m ode of regular
,
”
successi on or natural successi on If this were true .
,

mathematics w ould bec ome only an artificial game ,

played under certain arbitrary rules and leading t o no ,

real truth .

The c onsiderati on of the class of irrati onals taken a s ,

a collecti on of individuals br ought f orth a further mathe

,

ma t ica l creati on the e n semble A s a collecti on the class

— .

of irrati onals is c onsidered t o be v astly more n umer ous

than the clas s of rati onals Their density w ould not be .

s ufli cien t t o give u s this n oti on f or whether we c onsider

, ,

rati onals or irrati onals they seem equally dense F or

,
.

between any t w o of either there is a third of the same kind ;

and what is m ore t o the p oint there are members of the
, ,

o ther s e t ; that is between any t w o rati onal numbers

, ,

h owever cl ose there are irrati onal n umbers and between

, ,

any t w o irrational numbers there are rati onal numbers .

Hence we are c ompelled fr om this p oint of View t o think of

the t wo as having the same density Bu t the rati onal .

numbers may be numbered by a rule which wil l a ccount

f or ea ch of them th ough n ot in their natural order To d o
,
.

this we consider all the rati onal numbers the sum of wh ose
,

numerat or and den ominat or is a given integer N each ,

fracti on being in its l owest terms as f or example if N 1 0 , , , ,

we have the rati on als 9 —1

It is evident that f or a
given N the number of rati onals is finite and that in ,

f oll owi ng the s uccessiv e numbers N we shall arrive s ome

where at each and e v ery rati onal
g, at the farthest when
Z a hl en und M es s en ,
1 88 7 .
26 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
arithmetizati on pr ocess t o clutch in our sets of irrati onals ,

n o s ingle s e t of which is in this s e n se c ontinu ous We .

are led ultimately t o define an arithmetical c onti n uity ,

which is s omething quite diff erent fr om the psych ol ogical

c on ti n uity but which we must ma k e u s e of in the attempt
,

t o represent all mathematical pr oblems in number f orm .

The arithmetical continuity appears in the study of p oi n t

sets a n d in the n oti ons of de n se s et perfect set a n d their
, ,

exte n si on s These n oti on s have little or n o resembla n ce

.

t o the physical c ontinuity of nature or at least of our ,

n oti on of nature Insta n ts are substituted f or i n tervals

.
,

there is no durati on pr operly S O called a nd such a con ,

cep t ion as m o ti on bec omes a c oncepti on of the c orresp ond

ence between numbers that represent p ositi on and an other

s e t of n umbers that represe n t insta n ts of time The .

wh ole of m odern a n alysis is f ou n ded up on such concep

ti on s and its ultimate utility is guaranteed by the success
,

with which it s meth ods have been applied t o physical

“
and ge ometrical pr oblems By i n tr oducing a measure
.

”
of a set Lebesgue and others have found a means of
handling sets satisfactorily .
’

H owever in the study of i nfi n ite c ollecti ons we must

,

enter several reservati ons F or example such c ollecti ons

.
,

are defined as equivalent when a m ode of c orresp on de n ce

between their members can be set up such that t o each
member of the on e c orresp on ds a definite single member
of the o t her a n d vice versa B u t if the infinite c olle e
.
,

ti on is n ot given outright by s ome law but gr ows by ,

additi ons that depend up on the members already admitted ,

then it is not p ossible t o c ompare tw o such c ollecti on s f or ,

on e can n o t be certain that the orderi n g up t o any given

stage must not be c ompletely disarra ng ed when further

S ee D e La V a ll ée-Pou s s in , L es intégra l es d e L eb es gu e, 1 91 6 .
 Number a nd A rithmetiza ti on 2 7

n ew members are admitted In the f oreg oi ng example of

.

the rati onal n umbers the members of any subset bel ongi ng
t o the integer N can be f ou n d with out kn owi ng th ose of
a ny o ther subset Hence the argument of the p ossibility
.

of the arrangement is n o t depe n dent up on its s uccess at

a ny stage .B u t in the arra n gement of the in comme ns u

rable decimals agai n st the integers the success we meet in
c on structi ng a decimal which has been left ou t is con
ti nge n t up on a series of operati ons each of which demands
that the entire set of decimals a n d integers be c onsidered
at each stage of the pr ocess This is a man ifest imp os s i
.

b il ity
. It is clear that the inc ommensurable decimal s
can be arra nged s o that s ome of them are omitted but ,

s o can the integers themselves Thus the even numbers .

may be n umbered requiring all the integers t oeff ect the

,

n umberi ng He n ce mere omissi on by a given scheme of

.

s ome of an infinite c ollecti on d oe s not pr ove that the

c ollecti on is not equivale n t t o an other collecti on on s ome
o ther scheme of c orresp ondence .

The attempt t o intr oduce an actual i nfi nity int o mathe

ma t ics has br ought f orth many parad oxes all of them ,

disappeari ng if the actual infinity is n ot intr oduced .

These actual infinities have received the n ame of trans

finit es .They are inventi on s of the mind in d irect exten
si on of the n oti on of i n teger s o that classes c onsisting of an
,

unl imited n umber of members might have number s

( called p owers ) assigned t o them The devel opment of the .

the ory is due t o G C a n t or t o wh ose writings refere n ce

.
,

must be made The criticisms on the the ory may be

.
’

f ound in the w riti ngs of H P oinca re and related papers

.

bea r i ng up on the discussi on which has been w aged P oin .

car e p oints ou t that if we presupp ose an exter n al w orld

,

of a ny ki n d we pr obably will be f or ced t o consider an

,
28 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
external and actual infinity a s given If h owever our .
, ,

n oti ons of mathematics emanate fr om ou r ow n imagina

ti on then an actual infinity is an imp ossibility
, .

R eturning n ow t o the p oint s e t and leaving ou t of -

c onsiderati on the questi on of the cardi n al number of th e

t o tality of the members of th e p oint—set and its sign ificance ,

we find that we have a very fruitful e x te n si on of the list of

numbers The n oti on of limit of a sequen ce is devel oped
.

further the vari ous limits of all the sequences p ossibl e in a

,

s e t of given numbers c on stituti ng the derived s e t a nd ,

when a s et of numbers c oincides with its first derivative

s e t it is a perfect s e t N ow a perfect s e t is amply s ufli cient
.
,

t o furnish the basis f or t h e study of a continuity which is

s o far fr om the ge ometrical c onti n uity that it may be as

full of gaps a s a sieve yet which is s o near the ordinary

,

definiti on of c on tin uity that no disti nguishi ng feature is

see n F or insta nce in the m odern treatments of the
.
,

the ory of fu nc ti ons of a real variable the the orems h old

f or a perfect s e t as well as f or the s o called li n ear con
,
-

t inuum .I ndeed in t he m ost recent w ork functi ons

, ,

are defined over an ensemble and not over the linear ,

con t inuu m .
I

M odern n oti on s in physics indicate that the con c ep

ti ons underlyi ng the p oi n t set the ory may not be s o far -

,

as on e might at first t hin k fr om the n ewer at omistic ,

the ories of physics Indeed a s Borel has p oi ted o t

.
2
n u 3
, ,

the demands of physics have directed s ome of the great

devel opments of mathematics in the past and may even
n ow be f orci ng a n ew Sh oot t o push its way f orth .

1
D e L a V a l l ée- P ou s s i n, L es integr a l es d e L eb es gu e
’

2
V a n Vl eck , B u l l A mer. . M a th S oc
. .
,
21 pp .
3 2 1
— 1
34 .

3 I ntrod uction géométriqu e e q uel q u es theor ies p hy s iqu es , not e vu .

 Number a nd A rithmetiza ti on 29

The fifth stage in the devel opment of the list of num bers
we have j ust reached t oday It is not c on te n t with the .

integer the rati onal the irrati on al the p oint set but it
, , ,
-
,

demands a ra nge of extremely general character The .

numbers of this range are n ot n ecessarily ordered as are ,

th ose of a p oint set but may appear in ge ometric guise as

-
,

li nes surfaces and hy p erva rie ties F or example a l oop

, ,
.
,

of wire carryi n g a current will pr oduce at any p oint of

Space a certain mag n etic p otential which will be a func ,

ti on of the shape of the l oop Hence we must have as the .

indepe ndent variable th e ra nge c onsisti ng of the different

l oops that are p ossible in space of three dime n si ons .

S uch a ra n ge is called in general a fu n cti onal space The .

character of this n ew ra n ge is indicated by Ha d a ma rd in I

the terms : The functi onal spac e that is t o s a y the

“ —

multiplicity obtain ed by varyin g c on ti n u ously in any

manner w hatever p ossibl e off ers no simple image t o the
—

mind Ge ometric intuiti on teaches us n othi ng a pri ori

.

ab out it We are f orced t o remedy this ign orance and

.

can d o s o only analytically by creati n g a n ew chapter

in the the ory of e n sembles which shall be c onsecrated t o
”
the fu n cti onal c ontinuum .

S uch devel opments we find in the w ork of F r éch e t 2

and M oore a nd their students The chief applicati on s

3
.

of such the ory we fin d in the far reachi n g devel opments -

of V olterra 4 T 0 these o riginal papers we must refer

.

th ose w h o wish t o bec ome further acquainted with the

I
L En s eign ement ma théma tiq u e,
’
14 pp .
—
1 18 .

2
M a th A nn a l en
.
, 68 pp . 1 4 5 —1 68 ; N ou vel l es A nn a l es ,
8 —1 1 6 28 9 — 17 Th e
se r .
97 , 3 . se .

3 N ew Ha ven C ol l oq u iu m o f the A mer ica n M a thema tica l S ociety

A n I n trod u ction to a F or m f
o Gener al A nal y s is .

4 L ogons s ur l es f onctions d e l ignes .

3 0 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
fu n cti onal space F or our present purp ose it is simply
.

suf ficient t o cite these investigati ons in whi ch physical ,

intuiti on I S helpless t o pr ove ou r general thesis that

,

ma t h ema t l cs I S a creati on of the mind and is not due

t o the generalizati on of experiences or t o their analysis ;
n or is it due t o an innate f orm or m old which the mind

c ompels experien ce t o assume but is the outc ome of ,

an ev oluti on the determini ng fact ors of which are the

,

creative ability of the mind and the envir onm ent in which
it finds the pr oblems which it has t o s olve in s ome manner
and t o s ome degree Every one of the diff erent branches
.

of mathematics will lead t o the same c onclusi on but in n o ,

case is the evidence m ore c onclusive than in that of the

field of number When we fin d that the p owerful meth ods
.

o f the i nfi nitesimal calculus and its l on g career of success

ful s olving of the pr oblems of natur e depend ultimately

up on n oti ons which in no way were derived fr om an
a n alysis of the phen ome n a of n ature or fr om an analysis
of the nature of mind we must admire all the m ore the ,

ingenuity of the mind in devisi ng such a s ublime creati on .

RE FERE NCES
Wi nte r ,
L es princip e s du ca l cul foncti onnel ,
Rev d e met
. . et

mora l e ,
21 pp .
4 62 —
510 .

P ierp t
on ,
“
A ri thm t iz t i e a on of M a thema t i cs ,
B ul l . A mer .

M a th S oc . .
5 p .
3 94 .
 C HAPTE R III
S PA C E AN D T HE G E OM E T RIZATION OF M AT HE M A TI C S

In the c on siderati on of the pr oblems of ge ometry we

meet at the very outset the questi on of the reality of the
visible and tangible universe A t first t o questi on the
.

e x isten ce of thi s startles us in the same way a s the

“
asserti on of the m oti ons of the earth with it s r ock ribbed -

”
hil ls a n d fertile vall eys N othi n g seems m ore stati on ary
.

as we l ook ou t over the stretch of plain or ocean than the

earth In a s imilar manner we are pr on e t o believe that
.

things are as we see them or as we think they w ould be

,

if we c ould c ome in c ontact with them B u t the study of .

perspective drawin g s oon c on vinces us that obje cts surely

d o n ot have the Shapes we s ee them in f or these alter wi t h
,

cha nges of p ositi on and they even d o not appear as they

,

Sh ould in c orrect perspective We learn that a hundred

.

feet vertically d oes not l ook like a hundred h oriz on tal feet ,

and that the Sky reaches the gr ound many times farther
away than it is ab ove us at the zenith Yet we find as .

the result of our endeav or t o organize our daily exp er i

ences int o a consistent and c ohere n t wh ole that we have a

n oti on of a real and permane n t extensi on of three d imen

si ons which we call empty space and we assum e that every
,

real b ody must occupy m ore or less of this real space In .

ge ometry we think we are studying the pr operties of this

real space which are not due t o ou r physi ol ogical nor
,

o u r psych ol ogi ca l character but are impers onal and have

,

obj ective validity . The succe s s which ou r deducti on s

meet in innumerable predicti ons and calculati on s that
31
3 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
are afterward verified in th e constructi on of engineering
feats which are marvels of the ages lead s us t o believe
that we have f ound eternal truths in the world of nature
as imperishable as th ose of number Ge ometry appeared .

t o be that branch of applied mathematics which had

invincible truth a s its character and which was the ,

ideal t oward which all scie n ce must strive S ystems .

of phil o s ophy were f ounded up on it and it was the ,

pride of the i n tellect ual w orld Yet what a c ontrast .

between this height and the m odern axiomatic treat

ment of ge ometry in which alm ost any c onceivable
,

s e t of definiti ons which are no t l ogi cally i n c onsistent ,

th ough they may s ound absurd may be used as the ,

starting p oint of a game called ge ometry wh ose arti

-
,

ficia l rules and abstract situati ons have little t o d o with

human experience apparently or at m ost are con ,

v eni en t in the same sense that a meterstick is useful or ,

equall y the king s a rm or the pa ce he sets We assume

’
,
.

objects A B et c
,
merely distinguishable fr om each
,
.
,

o ther ; f or example stars and daggers will d o

,
We order .

the m acc ording t o certain arbitrary rules We s et d own .

the l ogical deductions therefr om and we have a ge ometry ,

on a p o stulati on al basis Is t his the last w ord and h a s

.

reality vanished int o vacuity and mathematic s int o a game

of s olitaire " Even at the f ounta in head of much of this -

work we hear Kl ein s a y : I d o in n o w i s e share t his

“ I

View but c on sider it the death of a ll science :in my

j udgment the axi oms of ge ometry are not arbitrary but ,

reas onable pr op ositi ons which ge n erally hav e their origin

in space in tuiti on and wh ose separate c ontent and sequence
”
is c ontr olled by reas ons of expediency .

1
El em
. ma th. vo m hoheren S ta nd p unkte a us , Vol
’ ‘

. . 2 p .
384 .
34 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
red ucti on of ge ometry t o a branch of physi cs A third .

“
View is that of Poinca ré Ge ometry is not an exp eri ,
I

mental science ; experience f orm s merely the occasi on f or

ou r reflecting up on the ge ometrical ideas which pre exist -

W ith in us Bu t t h e occasi on is necessary ; if it did n ot

.

exist we Sh ould not reflect and if our experien ces

, ,

were d iff erent d oubtless our reflecti ons w ould als o be

,

different S pace is not a f or m of s ensibility ; it is an

.

instrument which serves u s n ot t o represe n t things t o

o urselves but t o reas on up on things This reduces .

ge ometry t o a science of the ideas we have u n c onsc iously

st ored up in ou r minds s omewhere and which are br ought ,

t o light only when experience unl ocks the d oor and takes
d own the shutters A f ourth View is that advanced by
.

Halsted : Ge ometry is the science created t o give

2

understandi ng and mastery of the e x ternal relati on s of

things ; t o make easy the e x planati on and descripti on
”
of such relati on and the tran s missi on of this mastery .

This v iew reduces ge ometry t o the study of the universal

relati ons that h old between things It leaves ou t of .

acc ount the fact that thi ngs are not related of themselves ,

but that we d o the relating Li k ewise the stateme n t of .

P oincaré assumes that all ge ometry lies late n t now in

every mind BOch er fails t o acc ount f or the ge ometry that
,

is not based up on experimental facts and Russell denies ,

virtuall y that there is any permanent truth in the con

cl u s ion s of ge ometry Each states an indubitable phase
.

of ge ometry but n o on e is complete in it s statement of

,

what ge ometry gives us We ought rather t o l ook up on .

ge ometry as the ev oluti onary pr oduct of the centuries a ,

dyn amic rather than static View

I “
On t h e F oun d ti
a on s of G eomet ry ,
M onis t , 9 p .
41 .

2
P roc A mer A s s oc A d o S ci
. . . . . p .
359 .
 Sp a ce a nd Ge ometr iz a ti on 35

Tw o and a h alf th ousand years a g o a nd a century b e ,

f ore the Pythag orean frater n ity were endeav ori ng t o reduce
th e universe t o number Thales of M iletus measured the
,

heights of the pyramids by their Shad ows and predicted

the s olar eclipse of 5 8 5 B C M a ny of the pr op ositi ons
. .

of the c ollecti on edited thr ee centuries later by Euclid were

k n ow n t o him a nd if by mathematician we mean one w h o

, ,

studies the subject f or its ow n sake and not f or predicti ng

the f ortunes of C haldea n kings nor f or increasi ng the ,

wealth of the N il ea n land ow n ers we may assert that ,

the first mathematician was not only a ge ometer but ,

that his mathematics was intimately c onnected with its

applicati on s Thales traveled in Egypt and no d oub t
.

was familiar with the empirical mathematics deduced by

the Egyptians and used t o build the pyramids and t o fix
the b oundaries of the N il ea n farms and it is v ery s ig nifi ,

cant that while their rules deduced by obser vati on were

,

f or the m ost part ina ccurate th ose dedu ced by Thales

’
,

intellect are still valid after the tests of twenty fiv e -

centuries Indeed no further argument is necessary t o

.
,

maintain the thesis that ge ometry is applied t o the w orld

of phen omena but n o t deduced fr om it
,
O n the other .

ha n d it t ook a stretch of t w o a n d a half millenniums t o

,

reach the c onsiderati on of the f oundati ons of ge ometry

a n d the m odern axi omatic systems of Pasch Hilbert , ,

Ver on ese and others This in itself is a s ufli cien t answer

,
.

t o the c ontenti on that ge ometry is a collecti on of purely

abstract axi oms and the deducti on s fr om them under pre
assig n ed rules of l ogic Ge ometry is neither a branch of
.

applied mathematics n or is it deducible fr om purely l ogical

c on sta n ts N or is it true as M ill asserted that every
.
, ,

the orem in ge ometry is a law of external nature any m ore ,

than it is true that e very the orem of analyti cal mechanic s

3 6 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
is a law of the natural w orld In mechani cs we are .

privileged t o study f orces that vary a s the fifth p ower of

the distance or inversely as the tenth p ower b u t n one such ,

are kn own t o e x ist in nature ; and in ge ometry we pr ove

many t he orems that may be applicable t o the natural
w orld or may not be Yet the truth in the the orems of
.

ge ometry n o one seri ously c on tests if he uses ordi n ary ,

language The brilliant Greek mind f ound here a m ost

.

fascinating field f or play and gr oups of Greek d ill et a n t e

,

gathered in the A thenian courts drew diagrams in the ,

san d a nd argued over ge ometrical the orems as well as

, ,

the m ore f ortu nate wh o met in the Aka d éme over wh ose
“
p ortal was the warning Let no one ig norant of ge ometry
,
”
enter my d oor " In such high repute w a s ge ometry
held that Plat o pr on ounced one day the imm ortal sentenc e ,
”
G od ge ometrizes eternally "
Yet on the other hand we remember that the practical
, ,

character of ge ometry makes the m odern giant steel

structure of many st ories secure and we agree with ,

C liff ord : Even at the time this b ook " Euclid "w a s
“ I

—
written Sh ortly after the f oundati on of the Alexandrian
M useum M athematics w a s no l onger merely the ideal
—

science of the Plat onic S ch ool but had started on her ,

”
career of c onquest over the wh ole w orld of phen omena .

F or a th ousand years ge ometry sl owly devel oped fr om

humble beginnings up t o s ome kn owledge of c onics while ,

the hist ory of the w orld was written in g orge ous n ess and
misery a n d the Roman eagles Spread imperial r ul e a nd
,

intellectual stag nati on over the kn own w orld This early .

peri od was cl osed with the tragic death at the han ds o f

ign orant fanatics of the beautiful Hypatia i n car n ati on ,

of Greek culture .

I
Lectures a nd Es s a y s , 1 p .
354 .
 Sp a ce a nd Ge ometr iza ti on 37

M ore than a th ousa n d years of intellectual ight then n

dragged their s omber way over the civilized w orld Ig no .

rance and superstiti on held an imperial s w ay w orse tha n

that of Rome while the huma n mi n d gathered the e n ergy
,

that was t o beat d ow n the barriers that impris on ed it .

Little by little duri ng even a n other half mille nnium the

new life of the spirit gathered f orce under the slime that
had submerged it America was disc overed printing was
.
,

invented and man began t o attack nature t o wrest her

,

secrets fr om her Early in the seventeenth ce n tury

.

D escartes gave ge ometry a new start fr om which time it ,

has gr own t o be an en orm ous bra n ch of the mathematical

tree He made it p ossible indeed f or all mathematics
.
, ,

t o assume a ge ometric f orm a n d we might s a y the ge om

,

e t r iz a t ion of mathematics begins at that time F or ex .

ample in the shad ows of an electric lamp we may see

,

the the ory of bilinear quadratics and the nets of or th og ,

onal curves on a surface c ontain the the ory of functi ons

o f a c omplex variable The many faced crystal reflects

.
-

in it s facets the the ory of gr oups and in the dreams ,

of imagi n ary f our dimensi onal space we have a perfect

-

picture of electr odynamics that is t o s a y certain diff er

, ,

en t ia l equati ons Even the the ory of numbers finds in

.

the ge ometric numbers of M ink owski a lattice —w ork f or

its pr ogress A nd on the physical side we find ge ometry s o
.

useful that it threatens t o reduce physics t o a study of the

pr operties of certain c on structi ons in space Indeed it was .

“
D escartes w h o said Ge ometrical truths are in a way
,

asympt otes t o physical truths that is t o say the latter , ,

appr oach i ndefi nitely near with out ever reaching them ”
.

A nd by keepi ng n ear t o nature as life has d on e in all ,

stages of ev oluti on the ge ometry of D escartes s time burst

,
’

ou t int o a wealth of ne w f orms .

3 8 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
The essen ce of the C artesian ge ometry was the intr o
ducti on of the manif old that is t o s a y an e n tity con
, ,

sisti ng of a multiplex of t w o or m ore numbers i n stead of

on e number ; or in the la n guage of functi ons a manif old ,

is a ra nge f or f uncti ons of t w o or many variables A .

p oint in a pla n e is a duplex of tw o variables x and y ; ,

a surface is an equati on c on taining three variables It is .

easy t o anticipate the gen eralizati on of Pl u ecker which ,

c onsiders space t o be a quadruplex of straight lines or Lie s ,

’

ge n eralizati on which makes space a quadruplex of spheres

,
.

A n ensemble of lines depe n dent on on e parameter f orms a

regulus ; if dependent on t w o parameters a c ongruence ; ,

if dependent on three parameters a c omplex ; and if ,

depe ndent on f our parameters a space such as that in ,

which we thi nk we live F r om this p oin t of view any.

ensemble of ge ometric elements will define a space

there is n o e n tity called space or empty space F urther ,
.
,

in the early part of the last century Grassmann de vel oped

his scien ce of space of N dime n si on s mean i ng a p oint ,

Space of N dimensi on s that is an e n semble of p oints

, ,

which is dependent up on N parameters Ge ometry .

thus became the science of manif olds the elements con ,

s t it u t in g the manif olds bei n g quite diversifi ed Indeed .

,

t o ma ny mathematicians ge ometry d oes not study,

space but has bec ome a la nguage f or a n alytic the orems

,

on many v ariables It thus adds t o the n oti on of

.

n umber the new n oti on dimensi onality leading ulti , ,

mately t o an infinity of variables and functi on s of

them This is the ge ometrizati on of mathematics It
. .

is expressed by Wil cz y n s ki thus : The inve n ti on of

“
.
I

the analytic ge ometry has e nabled us t o state that

every pr oblem of analysis ha s a ge ometrical int erp r e
Bul l A mer
. . Ma th . S oc . 19 (1 9 1 2 p .
33 2 .
 Sp a ce a nd Ge ometr iza ti on 39

t a t ion and e very pr oblem of ge ometry may be f ormulated

”
analytically .

B u t we d o n ot es cape all tr oubles by reduci ng ge ometry

t o the the ory of manif olds While indeed we may s a y
.
, ,

that s o far as p oi n ts are c oncerned space deman ds three

variables s o far as lin es or spheres are c oncerned it
,

demands f our variables and thus space is n either three

,

n or f our dime n si onal we have a very imp ortant pr oblem

-
,

still t o c on sider in the f our—d imensi onal space of p oi n ts .

Treatises have appeared in n o small number a n d with

numer ous the orems ab out the s ix regular hy p er s ol id s of
f our dime n si on al p oint space ab out quadrics in the same
- -
,

kind of space ab out the pr operties of k n ots in such space

, ,

and many other pr oblems and we may wel l ask the ques ,

ti on :IS the space we live in really f our dimensi onal in -

p oints a nd c ould it n ot happe n that our f ourth dimensi on

,

is s o small that we have n ever disc overed we p ossess such a

dimensi on " If spa ce is reall y f our dimensi on al h ow -
,

c ould we ascertain the fact "a n d what eff ect w ould it have
on life " N ot by m oti on clearly c ould we fin d f our

dimensi onal p oint space f or all the m oti on s with which we

-
,

are acquainted demand a three dimensi onal space If -

.

thr ee p oints of a b ody are fixed the b ody ca n n o t m ove , ,

whereas in f our dime n si onal space it c ould still r otate

-

ab out the plane of the three p oin ts ; as f or example one , ,

might bec ome like his reflecti on in a mirr or Then again .

,

si n ce we obvi ously have n o intuitive kn owledge of f our

dimensi onal space it clearly is n ot a pr oduct of the intui
,

ti on If a pr oduct n ei ther of the study of the natural

.

w orld n or of the intuiti on it is left t o be purely a mental

,

af fair or one of the w orld of universals f ou n d in l ogic

, .

Bu t in either case at least the c oncepti on of a f our

dimensi onal w orld of p oints is a direct creati on of the
40 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
min d and not due t o an analysis of our c oncepti ons of
the natural w orld We are finally driven t o the p ositi on
.

that the hy p ergeomet ries are in reality creati on s of the

mi n d and that the w orld in which we live is actually a
,

case of one of the different three dimension al p oint spaces - -

ab out which we may pr ove the orems The mind f oll owed .

nature in devel opi ng the ge ometry of Euclid and in

ut ilizing the m ore p owerful meth ods of D es cartes but ,

it final ly burst int o fl owers of its ow n and once free fr om , ,

the trammels of experience it may ev olve acc ording t o it s

,

ow n nature We find in the study of math ematics the

.

science of the s e free creati ons of the mind in it s endeavor

t o s urm ount the w orld of phen omena s ome of them ,

useful f or the daily needs of humanity in its perpetual

struggle t o main tain its achieved ele vation many others ,

pr oduced a s sp ontane ous a cts just as the musician plays , ,

and the artist paints S imply f or the pure l ov e of creati on

,
.

We may indeed s a y that we d o not acquire nor fall

, , ,

h eir t o a ready made space even in a physi ol ogical or a

,
-

psych ol ogical sense but that our space is a pr oduct of the

,

intellect of each individual elab orated day by day under ,

the sp on tane ous acti on of the mi n d th ough stimulated ,

by the phen omena of our experience S pace is neither an .

external abs olute W h ose laws we disc over nor is it a ,

purely artifi cial game with which we amuse ourselves ; it

is the result of the livi n g act of creati on of the in tellect .

P oi ncaré p oints ou t that if in visi on the c onvergence of

,

the eyeballs did not occur at the same time as the a ec om

mod a t ion of the lens but if the t w o could take place at will
,

separately then space would have seemed t o us t o be a

,

f our dimensi onal p oint space Bu t perhaps our struggle

- -
.

f or existence on that basis w ould have led u s t o undertake

th ing s which would ha v e been s elf destructiv e to the race -
.
4 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
He really disc ov ered (with out being aware of it ) the
L ob a t ch ev s kia n ge ometry .

Passin g ov er o ther investigati on s we find in 1 8 2 9 ,

the publicati on of L obatchevsky and in 1 8 3 3 that of

Bolyai in which it definiti vely appears that the p ostulate
,

in questi on is not deducible fr om the others a n d that , ,

indeed there is p ossible f or space a ge ometry I n which

,

there are many lines thr ough a p oint parallel t o a given

line similar figures e x ist the s um of the angles of a
, ,

triangle is less than 1 8 0 degrees the defect dependi ng ,

up on the area of the tria ngle and trig on ometry bec omes
,

the the ory of hyperb olic fu n cti on s S aid Ha l s t ed with .

I

regard t o B olyai s small paper : Bolyai s S cience

’ ’ ‘

Abs olute of S pace — the m ost extra ordi nary t w o d ozen

”
pages in the hist ory of th ought .

The intellectual w orld st ood aghast as s oon as the

full imp ort of these facts was kn ow n It appears that .

the great Gauss had disc overed the same results before ,

but had n ot the c ourage t o publish them It seemed .

that the structure that had been th ousands of years

building was t ottering and it had bec ome a questi on
,

of the lab orat ory or observat ory t o ascertai n which of

three space w orld s we i nh abit A huge trian gle with

-
.

vertices on three peaks in Germany was measured and the ,

res ources of stellar measurements were taxed t o s olve the

questi on Even if f or small figures it made no practical
.

dif ference which ge ometry was the true one if there were ,

in all the s ky a figure f or which it did ma k e a di ff eren ce

, ,

wh ose en orm ous sides c ould be traversed only in a century

by th e flash of light at a speed of miles per sec on d ,

yet the scientific w orld desired t o settle the question if p os ,

sible It is certain as the result of all such measurements

.

1
I ntrod uction to Tra ns l a tion f
o B ol y a i .
 Sp a ce a nd Ge ometr iza ti on 43

that if the diff ere n ce can be disc overed in this manner it

, ,

is less than the err ors of observati on of the present day .

R iema n n in 1 8 6 7 published a paper which he had ,

w orked ou t s ome years bef ore in which he t ook the ,

gr ound that ou r n oti ons of space were of a ge n eral type ,

and that by experie n ce we have lear n ed that the ge ometry

of spa ce in n ature sh ould be at least t o a high degree of
,

appr oximati on the Euclidea n ge ometry He als o intr o

,
.

d uced a third ge ometry which permits n o parallels n or

, ,

Similar figures and which is finite just a s a Sphere permits

, ,

i nfi n ite m oti on but is yet finite It seems that n o one

,
.

previ ously had th ought of this ge ometry which permits

t w o li n es t o e n cl ose a space a nd which w a s th e n e c e s
,

sary c ompleme n t of the L ob a t ch ev s kia n Indeed the .

,

f ormulae of trig on ometry in this ge ometry are the usual

f ormulae of spherical trig on ometry if we make the argu ,

ment or angle equal t o the side of the tria ngle multiplied

by the curvature while in L ob a t ch evs kia n ge ometry
,

we need c orresp onding hyperb olic fu n cti on s Whether .

we live in a three dime n si onal p oint space with a f our

- -

dime n si onal curvature w hich is p ositive zer o or nega , ,

tive is a questi on Indeed the curvature might not

,
.
,

even be c onstant A S t o whether we may ever settle the

.

questi on opi ni ons diff er P oincaré t ook the p ositi on

, .

that the question had n o se n se It was equivalent he .

,

said t o as k i ng which is the true measure f or space a

, ,

yard or a meter or whether rectangular or p olar co

,

o rdi n ates are the true co ordi n ates f or space -

.

The defi n itive c onclusion h owever f or our purp oses , ,

is easily seen If ge ometry is derived intuitively fr om

.

experie nce then we Sh ould k n ow i n sti n ctively which is

,

the ge ometry applicable t o the w orld in which we

live If we ha v e not yet a s certained the a n swer t o this
.
 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
fundamental questi on then we d o n ot derive ou r ge ometry
,

intuitively N either d oes it c ome fr om a hyp othetical

.

w orld of universals which themselves are derived fr om

,

experien ce l ike c omp osite ph ot ographs or even appear

, ,

a s invaria n ts of e x perie n ce We are f orced back again

.

up on the c on clusi on that ge ometry is the direct creati on

of the human i n tellect drawi n g its sustenance fr om the
,

w orld of phe n ome n a but w onderfully tra n sf ormi ng it

, ,

just as the pla n t tra n sf orms the water the air the carb on , ,

di oxide i n t o a fl ower Kant had based his phil os ophy

,
.

up on the objective certai n ty of Euclidean ge ometry

a n d his phil o s ophy had t o g o thr ough a revisi on f or space ,

was no l onger a n ecessary f orm imp osed up on the w orld

when it t ook the cl othing of the mind b u t the mind was , .

free t o imp ose what f orm it liked The transce n de n tal .

ch aracter of Kant s phil os ophy went d own int o rui n s

’
,

th ough his c ontenti on that the mind supplied its Share t o

the content of experie n ce was m ost ast onishingly vindi
ca t ed .Indeed it turns ou t that with out the creative
,

c o Operati on of the mind there w ould be n o experience

- .

S o great an imp orta n ce is thus attached t o the w orki ng of

the mind that Bergs on takes occasi on t o warn us that the
intellect IS merely on e of the active agencies of life ,

wh ose pr oducts are pr oduced f or specific e n ds but are n ot ,

suf ficient f or all the e n ds of life .

O ther researches als o lead t o the same c onclusion We .

need menti on only the devel opments which were n ot of

an analytical n ature alth ough they may have bee n first
,

suggested in that way .

This was the creati on of pr ojective geomet ry O f this .

I

Keyser say s : Pr ojective ge ometry a b ou ndless d omain

2 —

I
g
M on e ( 7 4 1
—
6 1818 ) —Pon cel et
(1 788
3
Col umbia Univers ity Lectures p . 2 .
 Sp a ce a nd Ge ometr iz a ti on 45

of c ou n tless fields w here reals a n d imagi naries fin it es a nd ,

infin it es e n ter on equal terms where the spirit delights in

, ,

the artistic bala nce a nd symmetric i n terplay of a k i nd of

c onceptual a nd l ogical c ounterp oint a n e n cha n ted realm ,

where th ought is d ouble a n d fl ows in parallel streams ”

.

We find indeed here the c omm on gr ound f or the

, ,

u ni on of all ge ometries ordi nary or N dime nsi on al ,

-
,

parab olic hyperb olic or elliptic S tarting fr om this

, ,
.

f ou ndation we may be led t o ta k e the View of Klein and

,

o thers that ge ometry esse n tially is only the the ory of

the i nvarian ts of dif f ere n t gr oups F or instance the .

,

ge ometry of Euclid is the the ory of the invariants of a

certai n gr oup called the gr oup of Euclidea n m ovements ,

the ordi nary gr oup of translati on s a n d r otati on s We .

find as an other devel opment the ge ometry of recipr ocal

radii with such p oi n ts of u ni on as this :the ge ometry of
,

recipr ocal radii is equivale n t t o a pr ojective ge ometry on

a quad r ic pr operly ch ose n We may study other gr oups .
,

as that of rati onal tra n sf ormati on s indeed all of Lie s , ,

’

( 1 8 4 2 9 9 ) tra n sf ormati on gr oup the ory We c ome back t o

— -
.

the usual space agai n in the gr oup of a l l c on ti nu ous tra n s

f ormati on s givi ng u s a nalysis situs We have thus fi nally
,
.

created a very general ge ometry which may be illus

t ra t ed as f oll ow s If we w ere t o u ndertake t o study the
.

ge ometry of the pla n e in its reflecti on in a very cr ook ed

a n d twisted mirr or we might n ot f or a l ong time find
,

o u t the usual the orems B u t there w ould n eve r theless be

.

certain the orems that w ould remain true h owever much ,

dist orted the image might be This k i nd of ge ometry is .

ve r y ge ne r al a nd is indepe nde n t of the L ob a t chev s kia n ,

Euclidea n or Riemannia n p ostulates One feature of it

,
.
,

f or exa mple is the three dime n si onality of s p a ce

,
.
I

I
r
Poinca é , R evu e d e met . cl mor .
,
20 pp .
—
48 3 5 04 .
4 6 P hilos op hy of Ma thema tics
We have fro m these investigati on s th e defin ite result
that even in a w orld of c ontinual flux where f orms ,

diss olve int o o thers p oint b ec oming p oin t or p oi n t , ,

bec oming li n e or p oint bec oming circle or sphere yet the

, ,

intellect has created a m ode of handling its pr oblems of

existe n ce We find in other w ords that an infinity of
.
, ,

relativities are p ossible and of the m ost curi ous types and ,

even th ough the physicist is unable t o l ocate a ny special

p oi n t li n e pla n e or c onfigurati on in space as an abs olute
, , ,

p oint of departure even th ough he must use changi ng ,

scales of measurement yet mathematics is superi or t o the ,

w orld of sense and d ominates it in all its f orms Whatever .

pr oblems the ages may bring f orth as t o space or it s

measureme t o indeed as t o its c ompani on time
n r ,
—
, ,

we kn ow t o a certainty that mathematics will meet the

situati on create a s et of n oti ons a nd relati on s suffi cient
,

t o explain and manage t he pr oblems If the M inkowski .

f our dimensi on al w orld of a mi ngled time and s p ace

-

bec omes the m ost rati onal way t o think of phen omena ,

we will find it just as easy as t o thi nk of the C oper n ican

astr on omy or the r o tati on of the earth .

RE F ERE NC E S
M a ch S p a ce a nd
,
Geometry t r by M c C orma ck
,
. .

M a nni n g N on—Eu cl id ea n Geometry

,
.

i
H nt on F ourth ,
Dim ens ion .

M a n ni n g ,
The F ou rth D im i ens on S imp l y Exp l a ined .

Ha l ste Th e d , s a o on M e s ge f N -
id
Eu cl e a n G e omet y r ,
P r oc .

A mer A s s oc A d v S ci 5 3
. . . .
,
pp 3 49 3 7 .
— 1 .

D a rb ou x
“
evel o ment of G eomet
,
D p ri l M th d s
ca e o ,
B ul l .

A mer M a th S oc . 1 1 . . pp 5 7 5 43
. 1 — .

K a s n er
“
,
r
P e s en t P o l ems in G eometr rb y B ll Am
,
u . er . M a th .

S oc . 1 1 pp .
—
283 3 14 .

Kl e i n,
“
r g r Pr gr mme
E lan e o a ,
B ul l . N ew Yor k M a th . S oc .
,
2

pp 5 — 4 9 . 21 2
 C H APTE R IV
A RRA N G E M ENTS AN D M AT HE M ATI C AL TA C TI C
There is a charm f or m ost pers ons in the arra ngement of
a gr oup of objects in symmetrical designs Three objects .

placed at the vertices of a n equilateral triangle or f our ,

at the vertices of a square or three at the vertices of an

,

equilateral tria ngle and on e at the center and other m ore ,

c omplicated arrangements which h ow ever preserve , , ,

similar symmetries appeal t o the aesthetic se n se as beauti

,

ful The fact that in certain arra ngements of objects

.

under the acti on of physical f orces we fin d them at the

vertices of regular p olyg ons as in the experiments of ,

J J Th oms on on the arra ngements of small magnets or

. .
,

the arra ngements of m olecules in crystals leads s ome ,

ph il os ophers t o a view of the universe not very rem ote

fr om that of Pythag oras f or the integer d ominates these
,

f orms The arra ngement of the integers in vari ous de

.

signs such as squares stars cr osses and other f orms s o

, , , , ,

that the sums of certain selected lines are all equal has ,

even been supp osed t o have magic p ower and we fin d ,

“ ”
magic squares used as talisma n s against misf ortune ,

and other mystic diagrams ascribed with great p ower .

The study of magic squares has fascinated many pers on s ,

the underlyi ng harm onies and mathematical laws fur n ish

in g the ince n tive t o pr ol onged study We may qu ote .

the statement of M a cM a h on : I

Wh a t w a s a t first me rel y a pra ct i ce of ma gi ci a ns a nd t a l i s

ma n ma k e r s h a s n ow f or a l ong t i me b ecome a se ri ou s stu dy f or
P r oceed ings f
o the Roy a l I ns titution f
o Gr ea t Brita in , 1 7
pp .
—
50 6 1 .
48 Phi los op hy of Ma thema tics
ma thema t c a n s N ot ii . tha t they ha ve i ma gined tha t i t w oul d
l ea d
them t o a ny th n i g of solid a dva nta ge ; but b eca us e the
theory w a s s een t o b e f ra ught with difficul t y a nd i t w a s con
,

s id ere d p os s ib l e tha t s ome n ew pr op e rt i es of nu mb e r s might

b e di s covered whi ch ma thema t i cia ns coul d tu rn t o a ccount .

Thi s ha s in fa ct proved t o b e the ca s e f or f rom a certa i n

, , ,

p oint of vi ew t he s ubj ect h a s b een found t o b e a l gebra i ca l

ra ther tha n a rithmetica l a nd t o b e i ntima t el y connected with
grea t depa rt ments of s cience such a s the infinitesima l ca l cul us
, ,

the ca l cul us of op era t i ons a nd the theory of group s

,
.

Like w ise we fin d that certain games or puzzles have

led t o a c on siderable devel opme n t of parts of mathe
mati es The pr oblem of placi ng eight queens on a chess
.

b oard f or example in such a ma nn er that n o on e can

, ,

capture a ny other on e has i n teresting c onn ecti on s as

, ,

well a s a n umber of other chessb oard arrangeme n ts .

The 1 3 1 5 1 4 puzzle als o tur n ed ou t t o be the s ource of

- -

s ome very i n teresti ng papers The pr oblem of putti ng

.

t ogether vari ous chemical radicals in the p ossible com

b ina t ion s led C ayley t o pr oduce his mem oirs on trees .

In all these differe n t e x amples we find up on exami na

ti on that the u nderlyi ng questi on is that of the e x iste nce
o r the stability of pr op o sed c omp ou n ds or c ombi n ati ons

of assigned eleme n ts u n der given rules of c ombi n ati on .

We are thus led t o the general pr oblem of c onsiste n cy

a n d t o the phil o s ophy of mathematics which u n dertakes t o

reduce the subject t o the determi nati on of p ossible that ,

is c on siste n t or co existe n t e n tities I n deed fr om this

-
.
,

p oi n t of view we c ould defi n e mathematics as the subject

wh ose pr oblem was the determi nati on of the ways of
building up stable c ombi nati on s of assigned eleme n ts
u nder given rules called p ostulates A b ook on the .

number of p ossible games of draughts or the openi ngs of

5 0 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
this column must be 2 5 8 but 8 has been used already , , ,
.

Thus 2 must g o int o the third c olumn and the array is ,

n ow filled in only on e p ossible way ,

1 5 9
6 7 2

8 3 4

To arrive at a ny other p ossible arrangement all we must

d o and all we can d o is t o permute the r ows a nd c olumns
, ,

of this f orm In this pr oblem we laid d own arbitrarily

.

certain c on diti ons a nd selected arbitrarily a certain s e t

of element s t o c ombine under th ose c onditi ons By .

direct i n specti on we arrived at the onl y s oluti on of the

pr oblem In order t o reach the di ffere n t f orms of the
.

s oluti on we s ee that the sum of a r ow or of a c olumn is

,

invaria n t under a rearra ngement of the r ows or the

columns We c ould of c ourse arrive at these separate
.

f orms independently of the n oti on of invariance of the

s um by c on structi n g directly each on e of the f orms I n the

same manner as t he first was c onstructed being careful ,

t o w rite each combinati on in every p ossible order and t o

select them s ystematically s o that no p ossible case be ,

omitted It is e vident that t w o c ombinati ons ab ove

.

were n ot usable at all :2 5 8 and 4 5 6 If we start , , , , ,

.

with either we find that we can not p ossibly finish the

,

array under the c on diti on s laid d own This suggests .

that in a ny such pr oblem there must be c ombi n ati ons that

are excluded fr om u s e and the investigati on of the reas on
,

why they must be excluded w ould lead t o very interesting

the orems Little has been d one with such pr oblems
.
,

h owever and the reader is referred t o b ook s on magic

,

s q u a r es f or particular s oluti ons of vari ous cases

I
.

An
1
dr w e s, M a gic S q u ar es a nd Cu b es ; M a cM a h on Combin a tory
,

A na l y s is .
 A rra ngemen ts a nd Ta ctic

A pr oblem of a diff ere n t type is that of the fifteen

sch ool girls They are t o walk in five triads on su cces
.

sive eve ni ngs s o that no pair of girls Shall be t ogether

,

in a triad m ore than once The questi on is h ow many .

,

successive eve ni ngs can be arra nged f or " The a n swer

is seven every girl walking once exactly in c ompa ny
,

with every o ther Thi s pr ob lem has led t o many .

i nvestigati ons of the m ore ge neral subje c t of triple s y s

tems A n exhaustive study of the p ossibilities is fairly
.

d ifli cul t .

If we imagine given elements attached t ogether by

b on ds as f or example in the chemical c ombinati on C H3
, , , ,

which may be represented by the f orm or tree

H
H— C

H
we may investigate what c omp ou n ds of these elements
or radicals can be made s o that n o b onds are left u n

attached This is a n imp ortant pr oblem of organic

.

chemistry It led t o very interesti ng devel opments by

.

C ayley It is clear that o ther f orms c ould be c onstru cte d

.

of a similar character and the p ossible c ombinati on s

studied We call such f orms c onfigurati ons

. .

A wider reachi n g pr oblem is that of the combinati ons

-

a n d the arra ngeme n ts of a s e t of objects In its simplest .

f orm this is the study of permutati ons of n letters F or .

i n stan ce with three letters A B C we can make six per

, , , , ,

mutati on s In these perm utati on s there are cycles of

.

letters as f or example we may have the t w o permuta

, , ,

tion s A BC and BA C A B c on stituti ng a cycle The ,

.

permutati ons may als o have cycles of cy cle s With a .

5 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
large n umber of letters the varieties of c ombi nati on bec ome
m ore in tricate leadin g t o a very exte n sive the ory
,
.

In order t o handle the pr oblems of permutati on s ,

we have inve n ted vari ous n oti on s such as cy cl e just , ,

me n ti oned ; tr a ns itivity which refers t o sets of permuta

,

ti on s in which each letter appears in each place on ce

at least in s ome permutati on ; imp r imitivity in which the ,

vari ous permutati ons may be split up int o c ombi nati on s of

Simpler f orms these simpler f orms appeari ng thr ough out
,

as units except that they may as c ombi nati on s themselves

,

be permuted F or e x ample the permutati ons A BCD

.
, ,

B C D A C D A B D A B C f orm a tra n sitive primitive s e t

, , , ,

f or each letter is first in on e per mutati on at least li k e w ise ,

sec ond in on e at least third in one at least a nd fi n ally

, , , ,

f ourth in one at least A gain A B C D ; BA D C ; .

, , ,

CD A B ; D C BA ; is a n imprimitive set ; f or each per

, ,

mutati on is made up of c ombi nati on s of the elementary

cycles of A B and C D We als o find in the c omparis on.

of sets of permutati ons the p owerful n o ti on of is omor p his m

appeari ng F or instance if we had the s e t (1 6 7 5 Ba 67 ;

.
, , ,

7 5 a 6 ; 5 7 Ba ; we c ould say that it is is om orphic t o the

, ,

previ ously given last set The n ce we are led t o the cre a .

ti on of the n oti on of a b s tract s et which w ould emb ody ,

the characters of all is om orphic sets w ith out regard t o ,

their particular representati on s We might f or example .

, ,

c on sider all right triangles as is om orphic in certain

the orems a n d might thus c onsider that these the orems are
,

really applicable t o them because they are emb odiments of

a certai n abstract f orm called right—tr ia ngl e This n oti on .

o f is om orphism as a basis of generalizati o n is widely used

in mathematics I t s essence c onsists in consideri n g the

.

obj ects ab out which s ome pr op ositi o n is stated t o be

is om orphi c c oncrete cases of s ome abstra ct object of

 A rr a ngemen ts a nd Ta ctic 53

which t he pr op ositi on may be asserted I ndeed the w orld .

of mathematics c on sists t o a large exte n t of these abstract

objects In the very begi nni ng of arithmetic the i ndi

.

v id u a l s of a c ollecti on are c on sidered t o be is om orphic f or

the numerical pr operties t o be c onsidered In algebra .

we might s a y the letters represent the abstract entity of

which particular values of the letters are c oncrete cases .

In this ma nn er vari ous c ollecti on s of elements may b e

s e t up and studied u n der diverse rules or p o stulates lead ,

ing t o the orems w hich are u n iversally valid because the

c ondition s of depe nde n ce may be s e t up as we please If .

later it is p ossible t o find real objects in the se n se of

material objects or Objects of physics chemistry or o ther
, , ,

scie n ce which f or certain purp oses may be vie w ed a s

,

is om orphic with ou r artificial set the n the the orems must ,

be true of them als o Si n ce their materiality d oes n ot aff ect

,

the basis of the original depe nde n ce or i n dependence .

It is the rec og n iti on of these facts that e nables the

mathematician t o interpret a system that he has w orked
ou t f or a given s e t of objects with reference t o a diff erent

s e t of objects It bec omes p ossible in this way t o apply

.

algebraic the orems t o ge ometry and the orems of ge ometry

t o algebra Indeed t o i n terpret a system which has bee n
.
,

devised f or a give n s e t of eleme n ts with referen ce t o a

diff ere n t s et is often e x tremely suggestive ; f or the p os
,

si b le new c ombi nati ons of the sec on d set may be very

obvi ous and whe n these are i n terpreted back i n t o terms
, ,

of the first s e t we arrive at the orems that we might n ever

'

have seen directly This meth od of recipr ocati on of

.

mathematical systems is one of the s ources of the steady

a n d e n orm ous gr o w th of the s ub j e c t It is in this way I
.

that the c on sistency of the the orems of a L ob a t chevs kia n

1
Cf . Ky r e se ,
The Huma n Wor th of Rigor ous Thinking , ch a p iii
. x .
54 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
ge ometry may be made is om orphic with the c onsistency of
Euclidea n ge ometry .

The a nalysis of existing systems int o their ul timate

elements and p ostulates bec omes useful t oo when it , ,

enables us t o c orrelate systems t ogether as bei ng in

reality emb odiments of on e abstract the ory We qu ote .

M oor e on the subject : The existe n ce of anal ogies

I “

between central features of vari ous the ories implies the

existe n ce of a general the ory which underlies the par
t icu l a r the ories a n d u n ifies them with respect t o th ose
”
central features We d o not gain simply a kn owledge of
.

the f oundati on s of mathematics in this a n alysis but we ,

find it easier t o identify the f ou n dati ons of very diff erent

systems and t o s ee that they are aspects of one and the
same abstract the ory It is f or this reas on that the study
.

of many pr oblems that l ook at first like mere puzzles or

g ames t o while away an idle h o ur may suggest meth ods

of treatment of very d ifli cu l t and imp orta n t pr oblems

in o ther directi ons .

B esides the invaria n ce in c ombi nati ons that leads t o

the n oti on of abstract objects we find corresp ondences
,

between sets of c ombinati ons of d ifferent types which

e nable us t o call one s et a functi on of the other s e t For .

instance the s et of hy p ernumb ers which are the s oluti ons

,

of an algebraic p olyn omial is a fu nc ti on of a set of permuta

ti on s on a given n umber of letters This functi on ality was

.

i n deed the key that Gal ois f ou n d t o u nl ock this diffi cult
part of algebra A nd the is om orphism betwee n these per
.

mutati ons and the divisi on s of a sphere i n t o triangles ,

e nables Klein t o present the s oluti on of the quintic as

a fu n cti on of the divisi on of a sphere i n t o 1 2 0 equal
tria ngles .

I
I ntrod uction to a F orm of Gener a l A na l y s is , p . 1 .
 A rr a ngemen ts a nd Ta ctic 55

The disc overy of is om orphisms and functi onalities of

this character requires the penetrati ng eye of a mathe
ma t ica l genius A fter they are once br ought t o light the
.
,

less masterful can devel op them and many others Similar

t o t hem . The creati on of the ideas that lik e is om orphism ,

and fu n cti onality e nable mathematics t o attack m ore

,

p owerful ly the w orld and it s pr oblems requires the high ,

est ty pe of mathematical ge nius The mathematician .

delights it is quite true in the harm onies of structure

, ,

which he disc overs in a game but he is playi ng a game

,

n o t s o much f or the pleasure of the game as f or the s ug g e s

t iv ene s s of it The game begets n ew mathematical

.

concepti ons The p oint of view h owever that c onsiders

.
, ,

the wh ole of mathematics as a game in which fantastic ,

structures are built under arbitrary rules sees only a

superficial phase of the activity of the mathematician .

It c ompletely fails t o perceive the i nnate reality and per

ma nence .

F r om this p oint of view the millenniums of Euclid s ’

ge ometry have sufficed t o build only a t oweri ng structure

which s o far as we kn ow may yet as f urther turrets and
, , ,

pinn acles are added t o it bec ome unstable and g o crash

,

ing d own int o the m ost h opeless rui n s the ages have ever
see n f or with it w oul d g o man s h ope of ever reall y reach
,
’

ing any kind of certainty Even th ough up t o the present

.

all physical reality has c onfirmed the truth of the the orems ,

yet these c onfirmati ons are only appr oximate a n d the ,

degree of appr oximati on may gr ow less and less as time

r olls on F r om this p oint of view that is true which
.
,

stands t oday alth ough t om orr ow it fall N o criteri on

,
.

of abs olute truth we are assured exists We may

, ,
.

f ound ou r deducti ons on what premises we please use ,

whatever rules of l ogic we fancy and can only kn ow ,

5 6 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
that we have played a fruitless game when the wh ole
—
system c ollapses and there is n o certainty that any
system will n ot s ome day c ollapse "
We may easily be led i n t o a metaphysical f og in this
c onn ecti on in which we l ose Sight of the m ost refract ory
,
“
verity that life off ers What is truth
. is an ol d ques
ti on and when we s ee even th e ex is t ence of the w orld
, ,
‘

exp erie n ce in a ny f orm or the c omm on est fact challenged

, ,

t o pr ove that it is n o t a dream we need n ot be surprised ,

t o fin d mathematical facts thr own i n t o the same state

of unreality as the rest of the w orld We may h owever .
, ,

safely say that the w orld as we kn ow it is the only w orld

, ,

we k n ow a n d t o label it a d ream is merely t o call it by

,

an other name T o label it as u nreal is t o use the w ord

.

reality in a n ew and strange sense If terms are t o reta i n .

their ordinary sense the n we have a perfectly definite

,

pr oblem bef ore us Here is mathematics a structure of

.
,

huma n activity which has gradually arisen thr ough the

ages Its real e x istence no one ca n seri ously deny O ur
. .

s ole pr oblem is t o acc ou n t f or it s o far as we can a nd t o ,

decide as t o its stability S uch a questi on a s I s it certain

.

that 2 a n d 3 will al w ays equal 5 is destitute of sense

”
.

S o l ong as 2 3 a n d 5 as well as the term additi on retain

, , , ,

their prese n t meani ng then 2 + 3 5 If the term 2 c omes

,
.

t o be refi n ed or a n alyzed s o that w e may assert that there

are t w o varieties of 2 then we might c onceive that f or one
,

of these this pr op ositi on might n eed alterati on A n ex .

ample t o the p oi n t is the term c on ti nu ous fu n cti on It was .

once supp osed that every c on ti n u ous fu n cti on was dif fer

en t ia b l e
. Later it was Sh own t hat there were c on tinu ous
fu n cti on s that were n ot dif fere n tiable T o assert that the .

mathematicia n of the earlier peri od had made a n err or

is t o utterly misuse the term err or The earlier mathe .
5 8 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
triangles made of steel neither w ould pr ove that the s um
of the angles of the tr i a n gle the mathematician is ta l ki n g

ab out is 1 8 0 n or w ould it dispr ove it The reas on is

°
.

again that the the orem is independent of the object .

If we pr ove a the orem as t o a triangle or as t o the n umber

2 the pr oof is n owhere depe n dent up on the material of an
,

Obje ct or up on its chemical c onstituti on or up on the

, ,

day of the m on th or up on the weather This fact which

,
.
,

is obvi ous is a s ufli cien t reas on f or asserti ng that these

,

the orems are theref ore valid irrespective of the material

, ,

or the time or the weather

,
.

A more subtle questi on is raised if we view these u ni

versal the orems as E n riques d oes that is as observed , ,

invariants of experience If this is all they are then as

.
, ,

experience pr oceeds thr ough the ages they may turn ou t ,

ultimately t o be only relative invariants and might ,

e v en be only appr oximately invarian t It is true that in a.

series of changes of f orm in which we find an element that

,

nevertheless d oes not cha nge with the f orm t here is in ,

this invariant element an independe n ce fr om th ose fea

ture s that acc ompany the cha nges A s an example the .
,

harm onic rati o of f our p oints is not disturbed by a p r o

j e c t iv e tra n sf o rmati o
.n B u t the rati o in questi on may
be studied w ith out c onsidering it t o be an invaria n t of
such a tra n sf ormati on We may study ge ometry t o be
.
,

sure fr om the pr ojective p oint of view and reach the

,

usual metrical the orems but the m ore natural way t o

,

arrive at them is t o study them directly The fact that .

they may be l ook ed at a s in variants is a fact of w hich they

are i ndeed independent There is S O t o speak a higher
.
, ,

degree of i ndepe ndence than that of invariance n amely ’

, ,

independence of an abs olute type This is the ki n d of

.

independence that we will find in m ost mathematical

 A rr a ngeme nts a nd Ta ctic 59

devel opments if they are carefully analyzed Gonse

,
.

que n tly w e can be certain that in studyi ng th ose things

which are indepe nde n t in the abs olute sense of time place , ,

a nd pers on a nd no t merely invariant as t o time place and

, , ,

pers on we really arrive at a perma n ent structure in the

,

highest sense p ossible .

We find in the foll owing a clear summary of the

answer t o the q ues t ion : I

The ma thema t ica l l a w s pr esupp ose a ve ry compl ex el a b o

ra tion T hey a re not known ex cl usivel y ei the r a pri ori or a
.

pos teriori but a re a crea t ion of the mind ; a nd thi s crea tion i s
,

n ot a n a rbi t r a ry one b ut o wi ng t o the min d s r esou r ces t a k es

’
, , ,

pl a ce with reference t o exp e rience a nd in Vi ew of i t S ome .

t i mes the mi nd st a rt s wi th i ntui t ion s whi ch i t f reel y c re a tes ;

somet i mes by a process of elimina t ion i t ga the rs up the a xioms
, ,

i t rega rd s a s mos t sui ta b l e f or produci ng a ha rmonious devel op

ment on e th a t i s b oth si mp l e a nd fe rt il e T hus ma the ma t i cs
,
.

is a vol unt a ry a n d i ntel lig en t a d a p t a t i on of thou ght t o thi ng s ,

i t represents the forms tha t will a ll ow of q ua l ita t ive dive rsity

b eing su rmount ed t he moul d s i nto whi ch rea l ity must ente r
'

in ord e r t o b ecome a s i ntel l igibl e a s p oss ib l e .

It was C S Peirce wh o defined M athematics t o be the

. .
2

study of ideal c onstructi ons ”

He adds the remark : .

The observati ons being up on objects of imaginati on

merely the disc overies of mathematics are susceptible of
,
”
bei ng rendered quite certai n The imp ortance of view .

ing mathematics as a tremend ous structure is br ought ou t

by this definiti on fr om the humble magic square t o vast ,

systems such as pr oj ecti ve ge ometry functi ons of com ,

plex variables the ory of numbers analysis in general If

, , .

2
E . Bou t rou x , N a tur a l L a w in S cience a nd P hil os op hy , t r a ns by
p
.

Rot h w el l , .
40 .

2
C entury D ictiona ry ; a r ticl e M a thema tics .
60 P hilos ophy of Ma thema tics
t he mathematician were engaged onl y in ideal building ,

the definiti on might be sufficient B ut we have a l ready .

seen that he is interested in ranges and in multiple ranges ,

which may be considered t o b e t he materials of building ,

as well a s in the s ynthesis of these materials A nd we .

shall s ee als o that he is furtherm ore equally interested in

the study of types of synthesis aside from the structures
themselves Li k e a master architect he must study his
.
,

st ones and metals he must design beautiful and useful

,

structur es but he must d o m ore He must investigate

,
.

the p ossible orders under v ari ous limitati ons A nd .

,

m ost of al l he is obliged t o consider t he actual pr ocesses

,

of c onstru cti on whi ch leads him int o dynamic mathe

,

ma t ics .

RE F ERE NCE S
M a cM a hon ,
Combina tory A n a l y s is , 191 5
—1 6 .

Luca s ,
Recr ea tions ma théma tiq u es , 1 89 1 —9 4 .

'
Brfi ch ner , V iel ecke u nd Vielf l ache, 1 9 00 .

B r gd
a on , P r oj ective Or a ment, 19 1 2 .
 C HA PTE R V
L O GI S TI C AN D THE R D E U C TION OF M ATHE M ATI CS
TO L O G I C
In the year 1 9 0 1 we find in an article by B ertra n d
Ru s s el l :I
The n i netee n th ce n tury which prides itself ,

up on the inve n ti on of steam and ev oluti on might have ,

derived a m ore legitimate title t o fame fr om the disc overy

of pure mathematic s On e of the chiefest triumph s
.

of m odern mathematics consists in having disc overed

what math ematic s really is Pure mathematics

w a s dis covered by Boole in a w ork which he called The
La ws of Thought His w ork was concerned with
f ormal l ogic and thi s is the same thing a s mathematics
,
.

A gain R ussell says

,
“
The fa ct that all M athe mati cs is
,
2

S ymb oli c L ogic is one of t he greatest dis coveries of our

age ; and when this fa ct h a s been e s tablished t he r e ,

mai n d er of the principles of M athemati cs consists in

”
t he a nalysis of S y mb oli c L ogic itself A ls o in Keyser s
’
.

address we find :
3
the t w o great c omp onents of
the critical m ovement th ough distinct in origin and f ol
,

l owing separate paths are f ound t o c onverge at last in the

,

thesis : S ymb oli c L ogi c is M athematics M athematics

“
,

is S ymb olic L ogic the Twain are O ne

,
”
.

O n the other hand we find P oincaré saying after his

,
4

various s uccessful attacks on l ogistic : L ogistic has t o be

“

made over and one is n one t oo s ure of what can be

,

s a v ed . It is unnecessary t o add that onl y C a nt oris m

2
I nter na tion a l M onthl y , 4 pp .
—
83 1 01 .

2
P r incip l es f M a thema tics
o ,
p .
5 .

3 Col umbia Univers ity L ectures 4 S cience et méthode, p . 2 06 .

62 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
and L ogistic are meant true mathematics th os e which , ,

serve s ome useful purp ose may c ontinue t o devel op ,

acc ording t o their ow n principles with out paying any

attenti on t o the tempests raging w ith out them and they ,

will pursue step by step their accust omed c onquests

which are definitive and which they will never need t o
a b a n d on f
’

What then is this l ogistic which made such ex trava

, ,

ga n t claims in 1 9 0 1 and in 1 9 0 9 was dead " In order to

understa n d it we must g o back t o the third ce n tury B C . .
,

whe n A rist otle was devel oping the study usually called
l ogic The l ogic of A rist otle is well en ough defined when
.

it is called the l ogic of classes A class may be defi n ed in .

the f oll owi ng terms Let us supp ose that we start with a
.

pr op ositi on ab out s ome i n dividual as f or e x ample 8 is an , ,

” “
even number or as a n other case Washi ngt on cr ossed
, ,

the D elaware If now we rem ove the subject and

.
, ,

substitute the v ariable as we shall have the statements : ,

“ ”
x is an even number x cr ossed the D elaware which , ,

are cal led pr op ositi onal functi ons fr om anal ogy t o ,

mathematical fun ctions In this case the functi ons have .

but one variable or undetermined term x If we let x run ,

.

thr ough any given range of objects the resulting state ,

ments will be s ome true s ome false s ome senseless Th ose , ,

.

that are true or false c onstitute a list of pr op ositi ons F or .

example we may s a y : 6 is an even number 9 is an even

, ,
”
number this green apple is an even number the first
, ,

a true pr op ositi on the sec ond a false pr op ositi on the

, ,

third a n absurdity S o I might s a y : Washi ngt on “

.

cr ossed the D elaware the Hessia n s cr ossed the D ela w a r e

, ,
”
the N orth P ole cr ossed the D elaware which are r esp ec , ,

t iv el y true false and absurd the first t w o cases being

, , , ,

pr op ositi on s The pr op ositi onal functi on with one vari

.
 L ogis tic a mt R eduction to L ogic 63

able is called a concep t The i ndividuals that may be .

I

put int o the empty term (which may be any w ord of the
sta tement ) the variable a nd that yield true pr op ositi on s
, , ,

c on stitute the class of the c on cept Thus the class of .

even n umbers c onsists of a certai n endless s et or range of

individuals ; the class of preside n ts of the U n ited S tates ,

a certai n set of a few individuals ; the preside n t of the

United S tates of one individual ; a nd the class of simple
,

n oncyclic gr oups of od d order may c onsist of n o i ndividuals

at all The i ndividuals of a class may n ot be kn own ; f or
.

insta n ce the daily temperatures at the N orth P ole or the

,

od d perfect numbers It is practically imp ossible t o a s cer

.

tain the individuals in the first class a nd there may not be ,

any in the sec ond class mentioned In case it can be sh own .

that a class has n o individuals it is cal led a null class It -

.

sh ould be n oted carefully that the individuals d o not

defi n e the class a nd the class only partly defines the indi
,

vid u a l s The individuals define a col l ection not a cl a s s

. .

The di stincti on i s imp ortant The same individuals may .

be referr e d t o one or m ore cl asses N or is the relati on .

of a member of a class t o the class the same a s the

relati on of a subclass t o the class F or i n stance w e may .

,

discuss the class of numbers which either are multiples of

5 o r give a remai n der 1 when divided by 5 that is 1 , , ,

5,
6 1
,
0 1 1 ,
N ow the
,
class o f f ourth p owers o f
integers are all either divisible by 5 or give 1 f or
remai nder Hence the f ourth p owers con stitute a s ub
.

class of the first class me n ti oned viz 1 1 6 8 1 ,

.
, , ,

A s a class whatever is true of the larger class is true of

,

the smaller Bu t of a ny f ourth p ower as 8 1 s a y we can

.
, ,

no t assert that it has the pr operty of divisibility by n d

5 a ,

its relati on t o the class is diff ere n t fr om the relati on of the

2
C ou t u t Ency c f the P hil S ci V ol I p 5 7
ra , . o . .
,
.
,
. 1 .
64 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
subclass t o the class A subclass is said t o be in cluded in
.

the class not t o be a member of it This diff erence w a s

, .

first p oi n ted ou t by Pea no and w a s not kn own t o I

A rist otle The tw o relati ons are indicated by the symb ol s

.

8 and ( f or i no
stan ce
, ,

Roosevelt 8 President of the U nited S tates ,

s ome square r oots irrationals .

The symb ol of a class is the inverted e , 3 , f or instan ce ,

r 3 divis or of 2 8 8
o ,

read t he class of di vis or s of 2 8 8 .

It is evident that a cla s s is n ot a class of cla s s e s f or ,

the latter is a clas s of pr op ositi onal functi ons of one vari

able the f ormer a clas s of indi vidual s
,
.

A rist otle not only studied clas s e s with s chemes f or ,

definiti on and subdivisi on of classe s but he intr oduced ,

the syll ogism a s a mean s of reas oning The syll ogis m is .

a Su ccessi on of th ree statements of the in clusi ons of classes ;

in f ormal statement Greek letters den oting classes
, ,

6 ( Y
° "
r
th en ( “
Y

F or example Pascal s the ore m is true of any conic every

,
’
,

circle is a c oni c whence Pascal s the orem is true of every

,
’

circle F or an individual cir cle we s h ould ha ve a d if ferent

.

type of syll ogi s m a distin cti on not n oted by Arist otle

, ,

namely ,
-
a ( B x e a then x e B
o
, ,
.

F or instance Pascal s the orem is true of circles this figure

,
’
,

is a circle thence Pascal s th e orem is true f or thi s indi

,
’

vidual circle .

L ogic rested with the A ristotelian de velopment f or

many centuries a nd w a s s upp osed t o be perfe ct The .

2
Rivis ta di ma tema tica p .
3 .
 66 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
class is als o under c onsiderati on represented by a If ,
’
.

only one class is c onsidered then If t w o are ,

c onsidered 1 = a b + a b + a b + a b etc It is evide n t that

,
’ ’ ’ ’
.

1a = a, 1 + a = 1 oa = o, o + a = a
,
.

The inventi on of these noti ons which seem simple en ough

now was a great advance over the l ogic of A rist otle It .

—
suggested f or example the use of I a f or a with the ’
, , ,

f ormulae c orresp ondi ng t o algebra

—a = —
a ( I ) 0, 1 a +( 1 a ) ,

which are the laws of c ontradicti on a nd exclude d middle .

A ny class may be dich o t omized n ow in the f orm

’ ’ ’ ’ '
x = ax +a x a bn + ab x + a b n+ a b x

If x is a subclass of a , we indicate it by the equati on s

’
x = a x or xa = o .

The syll ogism takes the very Simple f orm

a = ob , b = b c,

a a bb c a bc ac .

We have thus inve n ted a simple algebra which with ,

the one principle of substituti on of a ny expressi on f or

a letter which the letter f ormally equals and the
reducti on of all expressions by the laws of the algebra ,

enables u s t o s olve easily all the questi on s of the older

l ogic Jev ons has stated the rule f or d oi ng this very
.
I

simply :S tate all premises as null classes c on struct all -

,

necessary subclasses by dich ot omy erase all c ombinati on s ,

annulled by the premises and tra n slate the remai ni n g ,

2
P rincipl es of S cience; P u re L ogic; s ee a l s o, S tudies in D ed uc
al so C ou t ura t , A l g ebr e d e l a l ogiqu e (A l gebr a of L ogic) ,
‘

tive L ogic;
t r
a ns . by R bi
o n son .
 L ogis tic a nd R edu cti on to L ogic 67

expressi ons by c onde n sati on i n t o the Simplest p ossible

, ,

equivale n t la nguage .

B oole h ow ever made a further m ost imp ortant dis

, ,

cov ery : that there is a nearly perfect anal ogy between

the calculus of classe s and the calculus of pr op ositi ons .

That is we may i n terpret the symb ols used ab ove as

,

representi ng pr op ositi ons under the f oll owing c onve m ,

ti on s If a is a pr op ositi on a is the c ontradict ory pr op o

.
,
’

s it ion a b a pr op ositi on equivale n t t o the j oint asserti on

,

of a and b a + b the asserti on of either a or b or b o th 1 a

, ,

pr op ositi on asserti ng one at least of all the pr op ositi on s

and their c on tradict ories under c on siderati on and 0 a ,

pr op ositi on asserti ng all the pr op ositi on s a nd their con

t r a d ic t or ies simultane ously that is 1 asserts c onsistency , , ,

0 inc onsiste n cy A series of f ormal laws may n ow be

.

written ou t a n d i n terpreted Similar t o th ose f or classes

'

The syll ogism f or instance is the same

, , ,

a = a b, b b c, then a a c;

or in equivalent f orms ,

ab
’
0, bc
’
0, then ac
’
0 .

That is if the asserti on of a is equivalent t o als o asserting

,

b a n d if the asserti on of b is equivalent t o als o asserting c

, ,

then the asserti on of a is equivale n t t o the asserti on of c .

We may reduce the wh ole scheme of deducti on as bef ore

t o a system of terms which are the e x pansi ons of the
p ossible list of S imultan e ous asserti ons the premises ,

annulli ng certain of th e se a nd th ose remai ning furnishing ,

the c on clusi on s We Sh ould h owever n ote carefully

.
, ,

that what w e arrive at in this mann er are n ot truths or

falseh oods but c onsiste n cies and i n c on siste n cies That
, .

is t o s a y we d o n ot pr ove anything t o be true or false

,
68 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
by the l ogic of pr op ositions we merely exhibit the asser ,

ti ons or classes wi t h whi ch it is c onsistent or c ompatible ,

or the reverse In thi s sense only d oes l ogic furnish pr oof

. .

It is obvi ous h owever that ma ny n ew combinati ons of the

, ,

s ymb ols u s ed are p ossible by these meth ods and thus it is ,

easy t o ascertain the consistency of asserti ons that w ould

n ot o therwise occur t o us Wh ile the premises evide n tly .

are the s ource of the c onclusi ons the c onclusi ons are not ,

the premises and on the one hand the transiti on fr om

, , ,

the one t o the other is made m ost eas ily by these meth ods ,

and the conclusi ons are new pr op ositi ons c onsistent with
the pre mi ses A simple example will sh ow what is meant :
.

'
If a implies a then a is 0 ; f or if a a = 0 at on ce a = o
, , , .

C onversely :
'
if a a 0 a 0 a = 1 That is a pr op ositi on
’ ’
, ,
.
,

which implies its c ontradict ory is not consistent .

It sh oul d be n oted that the calculus of pr op ositi ons is

n ot wh olly para l lel t o t h e calculus of classes This is .

sh own particularly in the applicati ons of a certain axi om ,

as foll ows :(a s true) a A x a ( a s true) (a ef ) This .

’ ’
.

is absurd f or t he l ogic of classes Sin ce a = 1 is a pr op osi ,

ti on not reducible t o a clas s .

A useful f orm f or impli ca ti on is

(a implies b ) I ) .

The next advance was due t o C S Peir ce w h o devised . .

,
I

the l ogic of relatives in which the pr op ositi onal functi on

,

with tw o variables appears and which may readily be ,

generalized int o the pr op ositi onal functi on with any

number of variables giving binary ternary a nd then ,
2
, ,

n ary relatives
-
A S simple examples we may omit
.

x
M em A mer A cad A r ts
. . . a nd S ciences ( N ew Se ri es ) , 9
pp .
—
3 1 7 3 78
2
C ou t u ra t , Ency c .
f
o the P hil S ci. .
, Vol . I p , . 1 70 .
 L ogis tic a mt R eduction to L ogic 69

i ndividuals that satisfy th e pr op ositi on :A is the center

of the circle c arriving at the pr op ositi on al functi on x is
,

the center of y ; or an other example with f our variables is

f ound in :x is the harm onic of y as t o u and v The .

calculus Of the l ogic of relati ons is obvi ously much m ore

c omplicated than the previ ously k n ow n f orms of symb olic

l ogic While s ome of the the orems and meth ods of the
.

calculus of classes and pr op ositi ons may be carried over

t o th e calculus of relati ons there are radical diff ere n ces
, .

Thus the relati on n is the c onverse of the relati on n .

These tw o relati on s are no t identical unl ess R is s y mmetric .

A gain fr om n s we can infer s only if R is tra ns itive

, , .

The ra nges of a relati on are the sets of individuals that

satisfy the pr op ositi onal fun cti on when inserted f or s ome
,

one of the variables The m ost c omplete devel opment of

.

these n oti on s is t o be f ound in Whitehead and Russell s ’

P r incip ia M a thema tica In the i n t oxicati on of the m oment

.

it was these outbursts of the min d that led Russell i n t o

the extravagant asserti on s he made in 1 9 0 1 In the P rin .

cip ia there are n o such claims It Sh ould be n oted t oo

.
, ,

that the w ork of Whitehead in his Univers a l A l geb ra ( 1 8 9 8 )

c ontained a c onsiderable exp ositi on of symb olic l ogic .

A s s oon as the expansi on of l ogi c had taken pla ce Pean o ,

undert ook t o reduce the diff erent branches of mathe

mati es t o their f oundati ons and s ubsequent l ogical order ,

the results appearing in his F ormu l a rio n ow in its fifth ,

editi on In the P rincip ia the aim is m ore ambiti ous

.
,

namely t o deduce the wh ole of mathematic s fr om the

,

undefined or assumed l ogical con stants s et f orth in the

begi nn i ng We must now c onsider in a little detail this
.

ambiti ous pr ogram and its outc ome .

The basal ideas of l ogistic are t o be f ound in the w orks

of F rege but in s u ch f orm that they rema ined buried till
,
7 0 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
disc overed by Russell after he himself had arrived at the
,

inventi on of the same ideas independently The funda .

me n tal idea is that of the n oti on of functi on extended

t o pr op ositi ons A pr op ositi onal fu n cti on is one in wh ich
.

certain of the w ords have been replaced by variables or

blank s int o which any individuals may be fitted This .

is olati on of the functi onality of an asserti on fr om the

particular terms t o which it is applied is a distinctly
mathematical pr ocedure and is entirely in lin e with the idea
of functi o n as used in mathematics It enabled us ab ove
.

t o define c oncept and relati on in a way and it further, ,

makes quite clear in h ow great a degree mathematical

the orems refer t o pr op ositi onal functi on s and not t o
“
individuals F or instance the statement If a triangle
.
, ,

has a right a ngle it may be inscribed in a semicircle ”

,

merely means right angled tria ngularity as a pr operty is

- -

in consistent with n on ins crib ab il ity in a semicircle as a

- - - -

pr operty In this m ode of statement it is apparent t o

.

everyone that a large part of mathematics is c oncer n ed

with the determination of such c onsistencies or incon s is t
e n cies
. That it is not wh olly c oncerned with them ,

h owever is als o quite apparent F or example the cal

,
.
,

culati on of 7r can be called a determin ati on of the figures

c onsistent with certain decimal p ositi ons only by a v io
lent straining of the E n glish la nguage A nd again the .
,

determinati on of the r oots of an equati on is a determina

ti on Of the individuals which will satisfy a given pr op osi
t iona l functi on and n ot a determi n ati on of the o ther
,

functi on s c onsiste n t or inc on sistent with that first functi on .

There is a d iff erence well k n own t o a ny mathematician

, ,

bet w een the the ory of the r oots of a quadratic equati on

and the pr operties of quadratic functi ons of x A gain .
,

the analysis of the characteris tic s of a given ensemble

 L ogis tic a nd R eduction to L ogic 7 1

is not a determinati on of the esse n tial c onstituents of the

pr op ositional functi on wh ose r oots are the in d ividuals of
the ensemble O perat ors c onsidered as such are n ot
.

pr op ositi onal fu ncti ons and neither are hy p ernu mb ers

, .

I t has been made quite clear we h ope in what precedes , , ,

that much of the mathematician s w ork c on sists in ’

building up constructi on s and in determini ng their char

a c t er is t ic s and n ot in c onsideri n g the functi ons of which
,

such constructi ons might be r oots There is a diff erence .

“
between the t w o asserti ons and If 2 is a
number and if 3 is a n umber and if 2 and 3 be added then
, , ,

we shall pr odu ce a number which is 5 We find the .

diff erence well marked in the l ogistic deducti on of the

numbers 1 and 2 The deducti on is as f ol l ows :
.

Let us c onsider the pr op ositi onal functi ons oceqS I

”
has only r oots such t hat they cann ot be distinguished as ,

l ikewise oceqb 2 F or i n stance let the r oots ,

are 2 X3 1 2/2 ,
which are all ind is t inguis h
,

able in this pr op ositi onal functi on S o als o .

3 Then if we call ,
these pr o p o siti ons
s imil a r in that each ha s indis tingu is ha b l e r oots we may ,

c onsider next the pr op ositi onal functi on p s im

where p is a variable pr op ositi on which however is , , ,

distinguished by the character of indistinguishable r oots .

We may n ow define the number 1 as the fu n cti onality in

this functi onal pr op ositi on That is t o say 1 is a pr operty
.
,

of pr op ositi onal fu n cti ons namely that of u niqueness , ,

in their r oots In mathematical language we might s a y

.

The character which is c omm on t o all equati ons of the

f orm (x is called I thus defi ni ng 1 N ow ,
.
,

while it is true perhaps that t o seize up on equati ons

, ,

with one r oot as cases in which oneness appears is a

valid way t o arrive at 1 nevertheless it is not at all ,
7 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
diff erent fr om any other case in whi ch onene s s o ccurs ,

a s in selecting on e penc il fr om a pile of pencils In a lik e .

mann er 2 is defined a s the c omm on pr operty of pr op osi

t ion a l functi ons which are relati ons of a tw of old valence ,

that is admit two series Of r oots th e s eries in ea ch case

, ,

c onsisti ng of indistinguishable individual s The truth of .

the matter is that the definiti on s given are merely s tate

ment s in symb olic f orm of cases in whi ch the number 1
or the number 2 appear s The t w o numbers have in .

n owise been deduced any m ore than a prestidigitateur

pr odu ces a rabbit fr om an empty hat but t hey hav e ,

first been caught then Simply exhibited in an ir on cage

,
.

The fact that functi ons are useful things we cheerf ul ly

admit but th at everything is reducible t o l ogi cal functi ons
,

we d o not admit T he only ex cuse f or such a n oti on

.

“
migh t be in the tacit interpretati on of pure mathe ”

mati es s o as t o ex clu de any p rop os ition a s f or instan ce , ,

this triangle is iso s c eles Bu t h ere the ol d q uesti on

.

Wh at is an individual " is me t .

A n o ther n oti on intr oduced by l ogistic is that of truth

and truth value In no place are either of these terms
-
.

made clear or are they defined They are qualitie s of

,
.

p r op os itions that is pr op ositi onal functi ons which have

, ,

had individ uals inserted f or the variables F or example .

,

if I c onsider the pr op ositi onal functi on : x is right angled -

,

and th en f or x insert re s pe ctively the trian gle A BC

, , ,

the parallel ogram S this pink c ol or I have the asser

, ,

ti ons :A B C is right angled the parall el ogram S is -

,

right angled this pink c ol or is right angled The first

-
,
-
.

of the s e is said t o have the truth v al u e tru th; the sec ond -
,

the truth v al u e f a l s e; the third has the value a b s urd

-
,

which is not a truth v alue The first tw o asserti ons are

-
.

then pr op osition s the th ird is n ot a pr op ositi on M uch

,
.
74 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of Plat o inan other f orm In mathematics he says we
.
, ,

are studyi ng thi s w orld a nd are maki ng disc overies in it .

It exist s out s ide of the existen ce of any individual mind ,

and it s law s are the law s of l ogistic n aturally That such .

w orld exists we will readily admit but we deny that it ,

stands finished a s a Greek temple in all its c old a n d austere

beauty but that it is rather a living organism a product
, ,

of creative e voluti on similar t o the earth in ge ol ogic

,

times and ou t of the stress of temperature a nd m oisture

,

and dazzling s un there is ev olved thr ough the ages a s u c

cessi on of increasingly intricate and c omplex f orms B u t .

these f orms derive their existence fr om the radiant energy

of the human mind streaming int o the cha os of the u n

kn own E v en l ogisti c itself is the outburst of the mind

.

fr om the barriers of the early attempts t o think a nd t o

think clearly M athematics finally attac k ed the pr ocess
.

of thinking itself just as it had c onsidered number space

, , ,

operati ons and hy p ernumb er and created f or itself a

, ,

more acti v e l ogi c That this sh ould happen was inevi

.

table S ays Bruns ch vicg

.
I

S ymb ol i c l ogi c l ike p oet i c a r t f oll o win g the spont a neous

, ,

work s of g enius s impl y cel ebra tes the vi ctory or r ecord s the
,

defea t Conse q uentl y i t i s up on the te rri tory of p osit ive

.

science tha t t h e posi t ive phil osophy of ma thema t ics shoul d be

pl a ced It gives up the chimeri ca l idea l of founding ma the
.

ma t i es up on the prol onga t ion b eyond the l imi ts imp os ed by

methodi ca l ve rifica t ion i tsel f of the a pp a ra tus of d efin it ion s ,

postul a tes a nd d emonst ra t ions ; i t b ecomes i mma nent in

,

scien ce with the intent ion of di sce rning wha t i s in co rp ora ted
the rein of intelligence a nd t ruth .

The ph ilos ophic assumpti on at the r oot of the View

taken by the s upp orters of l ogistic as the s ole s ource
2
L es éta p es d e l a p hil os op hic ma théma tiq u e, p .
426 .
 L ogis tic a nd R eduction to L ogic 75

of truth we are n ot much c oncerned with Since we are not ,

discussi ng phil os ophy but mathematics Bu t we may .

inspect it a little with pr ofit This assumpti on is the .

very ol d on e :that there is an abs olute truth ind ependent

of human existe n ce and that by searchi n g we may find

it ou t S ays J ourdain
.
2

then w e a rrive a t seein g tha t the na tu r e of ma the

A t l a st , ,

ma t ics i s i ndep en d en t of us p e r s ona ll y a n d of the worl d outsid e ,

a nd w e ca n f eel th a t ou r ow n di scove ri e s a nd vi e w s d o n ot

a fl ect the t ruth i ts el f b ut on l y the ex te n t t o wh i ch w e or othe rs

,

ca n s ee i t S ome of us di scove r thin g s in sci en ce but w e d o not

.
,

reall y c rea te a nything in science a ny mor e tha n C ol umbus

c rea te d A meri ca C ommon sen se c er t a inl y l ea d s us a st ra y
.

when we t ry t o use i t f or pu rp oses f or whi ch i t i s not p a rt i cul a rl y

a d a p te d j ust a s w e ma y cut ou r sel ves a nd n ot ou r b ea r ds i f w e
,

t ry t o Sha ve with a ca rvin g kn if e ; b ut i t ha s the me ri t of fin d

ing n o diff i cul t y in a gree in g wi th those p hil osophe r s w h o h a ve
succee ded in sa t i sfy ing themsel ves of the truth a nd p osi ti on of
ma thema t i cs S ome phil osophe r s ha ve r ea che d the st a r tl ing
.

concl usion tha t t ruth i s ma d e by men a nd tha t ma thema t i cs ,

i s crea ted by ma thema ticia n s a nd tha t C ol umbus c rea ted ,

A me ri ca ; b ut c ommon se n se i t i s r e f resh ing t o thin k i s a t a ny

, ,

ra te a b ove b eing fl a ttered by ph il osophi ca l p ersua sion tha t i t

r ea l l y occupies a pl a ce sometimes rese rved f or a n even more
sa cr ed b eing .

D oubtlessif C olumbus were t o discover A merica

over again he might c onclude that acts of creati on had
,

g one on in the meantime and might reas onably assume ,

that they had happened in the past and d oub tless ,

M r J ourdain is f orced t o c on clude fr om his ow n argument

.

that the w ords he uses in the E nglish t ongue have not been
built up by the eff orts of ma n but have e x isted fr om the ,

2
N a ture of M a thema tics ,
p . 88 .
7 6 Phi los op hy of Ma thema tics
beginnings of time that the idea of pr op ositi onal functi on
,

and of relative and of fu n cti on p oint set t r a n s finit e ,

-
,

number L ob a t ch ev s kia n space and a l on g list of other

, ,

terms have always been waiting in the mi n es of th ought f or

the lucky pr ospect or but c omm on sense would refute this
,

View with very little study of the case We may gran t .

that electric waves hav e always e x isted but t hat the ,

wireless telegraph has al w ays existed in any se n se is no t

true ; nor that e v en if carb on nitr ogen hydr ogen a nd , , ,

oxygen have always existed nitr oglyceri ne is t o be dug ou t

,

of wells or that
,
be cause s ound waves exist in the air
,
-
,

theref ore symph on ies operas and all music have always
, ,

been waiting t o be disc overed not created It is true ,

.

perhap s that the elementary units which comp ose things

material or mental exist in s ome se n se external t o a ny ,

one individual in s ome sense but it is n ot true that there

,

f ore the c ombinati ons of these elements have always

existed L ogistic with all it s b oasted p ower h a s n e v er
.
, ,

c onstructed a the orem that was truly syn thetic in char

acter it has ne ver taken a s et of new p ostulates not
,

derived fr om previ ously existing the ories and devel oped

a branch of math ematics similar t o ge ometry or algebra .

It is p owerless t o m ove with out the c onstant attendance

of the intell ect it draws no m ore c onclusi ons than Jev on s s
’
,

l ogical machine with out its operat or It h a s never even .

intr oduced as one of its results a new th ought of wide

rea ching p ower such as the idea of pr op ositi onal functi on
,

itself Thi s idea came fr om the extensi on of the mathe

.

ma t ica l fu n c ti on t o o ther things than quantity C olum .

b u s did n ot create the trees or India n s or Sh ores of A merica ,

but he did create s omethi ng that the Icela n ders and

C hinese or o ther reputed previ ous disc overers did n ot
create and it s exi s ten ce we c el ebr a te t oday more than t h e
,
 L ogis tic a nd R eduction to L ogic 77

f org otten Indians or the shifting sands of Wa tl ing s

,
’

Isla nd or the br oken tree trunks M athematics as we

,
.
,

said bef ore did n ot spring l ike A thena fr om the head of

,

Z eus nor is it the rec o rd of the intellectual micr osc ope and
,

scalpel but rather a s Pr ing sh eim w h o is not a phil os opher

, ,
2

but a mathematician says ,

T h e t rue ma thema t i ci a n i s a l w a y s a gre a t d e a l of a n a r ti st ,

a n a r chi tect yes of a p oet

, ,
B eyon d the r e a l w orl d thou gh
.
,

percep tibl y connected with i t ma thema t icia ns ha ve crea ted ,

a n id ea l w o rl d w hi ch they a tte mp t t o d evel op i n t o the most

perfect of a ll worl d s a nd whi ch is b e ing expl ored in every d irec

,

t ion N one ha s the fa i nt est concep t ion of thi s worl d ex cep t

.

him w ho k now s i t ; onl y pr esump tuous ig nora n ce ca n a sse r t

tha t the ma thema ti cia n moves in a n a rr ow circl e T he t ruth .

whi ch he seeks i s t o b e sur e broa dl y consid ered neithe r mor e

, , ,

n or l ess tha n con si s ten cy ; b ut d oes not hi s ma ste r sh ip Show ,

i ndeed in thi s ve ry limi ta t ion " T o sol ve q ues tions of thi s

,

kind he p a sses unenvi ousl y ove r other s .

We must pass on h owever t o the reef that wrecked

, ,

l ogistic in its Sh ort v oyage after imperial d omini on This .

is n othi ng less than infinity itself S i n ce l ogistic asserted .

phil os ophically the supra sensible and supra mental exist - -

e n ce of its objects it was f orced t o assert that there is an

,

abs olute infi n ity In the t ra ns finit es of C a n t or it f ound

.

ultimately its ruin In order t o handle c ollecti ons that

.

had an infi n ity of members it had t o s e t up definiti ons

that ultimately led t o the c ontradicti on s which in the
P r incip l es of M a thema tics of Ru ssell were left uns olved .

These were the objects of the assaults of P oincaré and

o thers and led t o the defi nitive aband onme n t of the
,

sec ond volume of the P rincip l es The presentati on of .

the P rincip ia has many m odificati ons t oo l ong t o cite , ,

2
J a hr b D eut . . M a th Ver . .
,
13 p .
38 1 .
 7 8 P hilos op hy of Ma thema tics
but the discussi ons in the Revu e d e M éta phy s iqu e et M ora l e
fr om 1 9 00 on will be f ou n d very illuminating in their
bearing on the nature of mathematics The phil os ophical .

writi ngs of Poinca r e particularly Sh ould be c ons ulted .

The net result of al l the dis cussi ons is that all the meta
physic s has been eliminated fr om l ogistic a n d it assumes ,

its pr oper place in the mathematical family as a branch

of mathematics on a par w ith the o ther branches we

have c on sidered or will c on sider such as arithmetic , ,

ge ometry algebra gr oup the ory being in fact cl osely

, ,
-
, , ,

allied t o the subj ect of the preceding chapter the the ory ,

of c ombinati on ; it is i n deed the the ory of f o undati ons .

The questi on of infinity is one of the m ost d ifli cul t t o

c onsider a nd in one of his last articles P oincaré despairs
,

of mathematicians ever agreei ng up on it The reas on he .

gives f or perpetual disagreement is the fundamental

diff ere n ce in p oint of view of reas oni ng in ge n eral If the .

objects of mathematics are supra me n tal the n the mind

-
,

is f orced t o admit an abs olute i nfinity If the objects of .

mathematics are created by the mi n d then we must deny ,

the abs olute infi nity S O far n o decisive criteri on has

.

appeared bey ond that laid d own by P oincaré that any

, ,

object ab out which we talk or reas on must be defined ,

that is made t o be distinguishable fr om all o ther objects

, ,

in a finite number of w ords F or example there is n o

.
,

such thing a s the c ollecti on of all integers sin ce while , ,

we may defi n e any on e integer we cann ot define each a n d

,

every integer When l ogistic see k s t o c orrelate the col

.

lecti on of all in tegers t o a ny other i nfin ite c ollecti on mem ,

ber t o member this criteri on dema n ds that a law of

,

c orrelati on be stated which may be applied t o every mem

ber of the c ollecti on This is ma nifestly imp ossible A
. .

case is the pr oof that rati onal numbers may be put in t o a

 L ogis tic a mt R eduction to L ogic 79

o ne- t o- onec orresp onden ce with the i n tegers While any .

one rati onal may be placed in this way or any fi n ite ,

number of them yet acc ordi ng t o the criteri on it is not

, , ,

p ossible t o decide that we ca n place every rati onal in this

way M anifestly any operati on that has t o be d one in
.

successive steps will never reach an abs olute i nfinity A l l .

pr oofs relati ng t o infinite c ollecti on s consider that the

s tatement of a law f or a ny on e is sufficient The criteri on .

demands a law f or e v ery one which is admittedly n ot ,

p ossible The abs olute i nfi nity must not be c onfused w ith

.

the mathematical i nfi nity which is merely an u nlimited or

,

arbitrary class In all the pr ocesses we use in getting

.

limits the i nfi nity that enter s is not the C ant or trans

,

finit y .N or is an infini te class a n i n finite c ollecti on .

We may the n safely conclude that l ogistic furnishes

, ,

truth t o the other branches of mathematics in exactly

the same way that algebra d oes t o ge ometry or ge ometry ,

t o algebra or numbers t o gr oup the ory or hy p ern u mb er s

,
-
,

t o ge ometry By l ogistic we may draw c on clusi ons ab out

.

the elements with which we deal If we try t o interpret .

the c onclusi ons l ogistic is p owerless t o d o s o any m ore

,

than ge om etry can yield us the orems in l ogi c Als o the .

,

pr ocesses of reas oning of any nature are no diff erent in

l ogistic fr om what they are in algebra ge ometry the ory , ,

of numbers the ory of gr oups and it is the rea s on i n g n o t

, , ,

the l ogistic that draws the c onclusi on of l ogistic j ust as

, ,

it is the mathematician that s olves algebrai c equati ons ,

n ot algebra L ogisti c has a right theref ore t o exist a s an

.

independent branch of mathematics but it is not the ,

overl ord of the mathematical w orld A S t o the phil o .

s ophical imp ort of l ogistic we may well f oll ow P oi n caré s

,
’

advi ce and c on ti nue the devel opment of mathematics with

little c oncern whether realism or idealism or p ositivi s m
80 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
is sub s tantiated in the phil os ophical world Indeed .
,

we may c on clude eventual ly with L ord Kelvin that 2

“
mathemati cs is the only true metaphysi cs ”
.

RE FERE NC ES
Bruns chv icg , L es éta p es d e l a p hil os ophic ma théma tiq u e .

d rd
Ha a ma , L a l o st q ue et l a not on e nom e ent
“
gi i i d br ier ,

Rev gen d es . . s ci .
,
16 pp 9 6 —9 4 . 0 1 .

Ke yser T he T hesi
,
“
s of Mo d er L gist i c S i
n o ,
c ence, 30
— 6
pp 9 49 9 3
Moore the Foun d ti s M a thema t i cs
“
, On a on of ,
B ul l A mer
. .

M a th . S oc .
9 p .
40 2 .

Hob son ,
On the I nfini te a nd I nfinit es ima l in M a thema t i ca l
A na l ysi s ,
”
P roc L ond
. . M a th . S oc .
, 35 pp . 1 1 7
—1
40 .

C ou t u ra t , M onis t ,
22 pp .
4 81 —
5 23 .

2
Lif e, p . 10 .
82 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
transmutations of f orm or s ubstance The explicit use .

of this very ancie n t n o ti on did no t o ccur in mathematical

e voluti on until comparatively late True when the .

,

Greeks derived the c oni c secti ons a s secti ons of one a n d

the same s urf a ce th ey might have th ought of them as
, ,

s had ows of a circle made by a p oint of light a n d in this

way hav e c ome t o think of them as pr oduced fr om a

circle by a Single Operati on but they did no t evolve this
,

th ought The fact was as intuitively present in their

.

kn owledge of the w orld as a ny o ther mathematical fact ,

f or they all had seen shad ows of wheels a n d ri ngs Bu t .

the sch ool of Hera cl eitos was s oon scattered a n d his b ooks ,

called obscure The Greek s ought only the u n chan geable

.
,

the abs olute the eternal The idea of ev oluti on was yet
,
.

t o be b orn t o the w orld of th ought and as f or creative ,

ev oluti on it has only re ce n tly appeared in the new

,

phil os ophy of everlasti n g cha nge the phil os ophy of ,

B ergs on There are now all the m ore certainly eternal

.

principles still t o be f ou n d but these are not preassigned

, ,

fr om the beginning t o th e end rather are they unf or e ,

seeable fr om the past and indeed only when the occasi on

, ,

c omes d o they burst f orth as new f or ms of th ought .

The arr ow in its flight occupies a series of p ositi ons ,

c onstituting the traject ory that it had and this dead ,

thing may be studied by mechanics and th e successive ,

p ositi ons correlated under a law The law we call an .

explanati on of the traject ory and we hope by its means

,

t o predict traject ories again Yet we really kn ow not

.

whether the arr ow w ould ever retrace its precise path .

O ur laws are appr oximati ons drawn fr om a set of rand om

p oints and abs olute precision is imp ossible f or the m oving
,

thing S cience studies that which has been kn owi ng

.
,

n othing of th at which might hav e been .

 Ope ra t ors a nd R educti on to A lg orithms 83

Bu t the dream of science t o find abs olute invarian ts in

the everlasting flux we may r ea l iz e b et t er in mathematics ,

f or we may study the life of what we ourselves create

fr om a better vantage p oint than that of observati on .

If Pythag oras sch ool had been m ore mathematical

’

and less mystical we might fancy them disc overing facts

,

m ore sign ificant than that 1 0 was a mystic number .

They might have observed that all the i n tegers could be

pr oduced by the successive additi on of 1 and this opera ,

ti on they c ould have sy mb olized by + 1 attaini ng thus ,

the n oti on of an iterated operat or They might have .

arrived at the n oti on of representi ng a variable number by

a single letter rather than a fixed number and s o c ould ,

have pr oduced a f ormula f or the additi on of b 1 s ’

+ 1 ,
X= x +b .

If their inventiveness had pr ogressed rapidly they w ould ,

have devised an inverse Operati on called subtra cti on of 1

,

— —
and indicated by 1 such that (x+ 1 ) 1 = x In such .
,

case they w ould have no d oub t inve n ted a symb ol f or zer o ,

—
the number pr oduced by the operati on 1 1 It w ould .

have had the curi ous pr operty

0+x= x, x
— 0= x .

F r m this p in t
o o of View they w uld have s een that there
o

were negative numbers which w ould make sub tracti on

,

always p ossible .

Let us supp ose that they w ould next attack multiplica

ti on disc overing the eff ects of operati ng by 2 by 3 5 7
, , , ,

a n d giving exactly what Erat osthenes f ound in his

fam ous Sieve A Si ngle Operat or w ould not be s ufli cien t

.

t o ge n erate all integers as it w ould in additi on

,
Erat os .

the mes disc ov ered this fa c t by striking ou t of the list of

84 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
integers every se cond then every third every fifth etc
, , ,
.
,

fi nd i ng that there were always s ome numbers left over

with which t o begin n ew series These n ew genera tors .

they could have called with pr opriety prime that is , ,

first numbers I ndeed they w ould have seen that f or

.
,

multiplicati on it was n ecessary t o have the generat ors ,

1 1 2 3 5 7
, , ,
With these they c ould have investi
, , ,

gated multiplicati on and by inventi ng the inverses or u n it

, ,

fracti ons of the Egyptians w ould have been able t o ,

divide in all cases It might th en have dawned up on the

.

brightest min ds that these f our operati on s and the numbers

invented f or their acti on f ormed a cl osed s e t the result ,

of any c ombinati on of the operati ons bei n g a number of

the set That is t o say they c ould have s e t d own the

.

the orem that the t otality of operati on s represe n ted by

where a and b x a n d x might be p ositive or negative

,
’
, ,

integral or fracti onal always yielded a number of the

,

s et . This s e t of n umbers and operati on s c ould have

been called the rati onal set being s o very reas onable ,
.

The operati ons are in finite that is unl imited in number , , ,

and the successi on of any t w o w ould not give numbers

that c ould be called next t o each other since an other ,

operati on c ould be f ound t o give an i n termediate result ,

hence they could have said that the rati onal operati on s
f orm a disc ontinu ous i nfi n ite gr oup .

They might have been en ough interested t o have

g one farther They w ould have f ound f or instance
.
, ,
'
that if S i n dicates the operati on on so given by x a x + b 1 ,

where a is a give n number a n d b is in turn each of the

I ,

ration al numbers the s e t of operati ons S w ould always

,

give a n umber of such a character that if we c onstru c t

 Oper a t or s a nd R educti on to A lg or ithms 85

any other operati on T, such as m( ) + n and understand ,

ti ons T S T will whatever m a nd n ( excludi ng m =

, , ,
‘
2
, ,

always give a number in the s et pr oduced by the Opera

ti ons S I n deed starting with x we would have in s u c
.
, ,

cessi on
after T , mac k n) after S after T I
‘

- .

x; , ,

(G I
01 33 +
m

The last operation Con sidered as starti ng fr om x is , ,

evidently of the type S This operati on they c ould have .

cal led c onjugate t o the operati on S first used and c ould

have said t hat it was c onjugate under the transf ormati on
pr oduced by T The t otality of operati ons S w ould then
.

c onstitute a conjugate class In case a were changed .

I

t o a we sh ould have a sec ond c onjugate class and indeed

2 , , ,

there w ould be an i nfinity of c on jugate classes one f or ,

each number a The particular one f or which a = 1

,
.
,
’
x = x+ b where b is in turn every number of the s et of
,

rati on als w ould easily be seen t o be als o a subgr oup the

, ,

gr oup of additi on s and since it is a subgr oup c onjugate , ,

t o itself it w ould have been called an invariant subgr oup

,
.

It is easy t o s ee that multiplicati ons x = mx d o n ot ,

’
,

remain invariant alth ough they f orm a subgr oup the , ,

operati on of t w o successive multiplicati on s bei n g eq u iva

lent t o a Si ngle multipli cati on The c onjugate i n deed .

, ,

of x = a x w ou ld be x
’
= a x+ d ( 1 — a) where T is written ’
,

—
in the f orm m(x d ) This c ould als o be written in the .

—
f orm x d a (x d )
= ’— .

A little reflecti on w ould have sh ow n them that it w ould

be p oss ible t o find a si ngle operation which w ould convert
86 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
any t w o given numbers int o a ny tw o others arbitrarily ,

assigned Since this w ould be equivalent t o s olving the

,

t w o equati ons in a and b ,

and =
y 2 ay 1 + b ,
which give
a: b: — xl
l
This pr operty they c ould have labeled d ouble transitivity
of the gr oup of rati onal operati on s .

It might have been evident by reflecti on that if a s et ,

of operati ons c ould be f ound that w ould leave s ome on e

number u n changed they w ould f orm a subgr oup F or

,
.

example multiplicati ons leave 0 uncha nged and e v i

,

d en t l y f orm a subgr oup If any s uch s et is H and H

.
,

leaves x unchanged and if T c onverts x into y then the

, ,

successi on of operati ons T H T w ould evide n tly le a ve "

I
, , ,

y unchanged ; f or the results w ould be :after T x ; after ”

2
,

H x; after T y
,
The s et c onjugate t o H w ould thus
,
.

leave the number y invariant F or instance t o multipli .

,

cati on which leaves 0 invariant is c onjugate the s et

, ,

d = a (x d ) which evide n tly leaves d invariant S uch

’ -
x ,
.

a s et w ould f orm a subgr oup c onjugate t o the gr oup H .

We need n ot push the fa n cy any farther the n oti on ,

of gr oup did n ot exist at that time n ot even the n oti on ,

of Operat or Al l they had th ought of w a s the s et of

.

n umbers i n tegers and fracti ons

,
H owever it seems evi
,
.
,

de n t fr om the fancy that the n oti on of gr oup and operat or

emanates fr om the mind s attempt t o V iew its objects fr om
’

its ow n standp o ints and not t o an alyze the objects f or

,

residues which may be called c oncepts n or t o intr ospect ,

its ow n activities f or such laws If these n oti ons are .

a pri ori but only emerge in the c ourse of time then we

, ,
 Oper a t ors a nd R edu ction to A lg or it hms 87

have substantially the same phen omen on as called f or by

creative activity It was twe n ty three centuries before
.
-

these n otions emerged int o the c onsci ousness of mathe

ma t icia n s .

Operati ns may be divided int

o classes the dis
o tw o —

c ontinu ous and the c ontinu ous In the first class it is n ot

.

p ossible t o fin d a n operat or that will pr oduce fr om the

operand A a c ontinu ous series of opera n ds up t o B ;

in the secon d class this is p ossible We may s ometimes .

find in the first class that we are able t o select an operat or

that will pr oduce fr om A an object as cl ose t o A as we de
sire but the operat or will depe n d up on A and w ould n ot
,

f or other operands pr oduce an object arbitrarily cl ose .

A s examples we may c onsider the operati on of turning a

radius thr ough an angle 0 If this angle is commens u .

rable with the d iff ere n t radii will be finite in number ,

and eventually on e of them will c oincide with the first .

The operati on is called in this case finite a s wel l as dis ,

c onti nu ous If 9 is not c omme n surable with

. then
we can eventually by repetiti on of the Operati on pr oduce
a radius as near t o the initial radius as we pleas e but the ,

intermediate radii d o n ot f orm a c on tinu ous s e t We .

have a dif ferent case in the operati on of adding 1 t o 0 the ,

successive numbers never appr oaching indefinitely cl ose .

If the angle ab ove is all owed t o take any v alue then ,

the radii resulting f orm a c ontinu ous s et and the Opera ,

ti on s c on stitute a c on tinu ous gr oup The n oti on is .

recent the p ossibility of it is of c ourse as ol d as the

, , ,

race It might have occurred t o Euclid S ays Poinca r é :

. .
I

I n fine the pri ncip a l f ou n d a t i on of Euclid s d emonst ra t i on s

’
,

i s real l y the exi stence of the group a nd i ts prop e rti es Un q u es .

t ion a b l y h e a pp e a l s t o othe r a xi oms whi ch i t i s more diflicu l t

2
M on is t , 9 p .
34 .
88 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
to refe r t the ti f gr up A i m f thi ki d i s th t
o no on o o . n ax o o s n a

which s me ge meters empl y whe th ey defi e st r ight li e

o o o n n a a n

as the Sh rtest di st ce bet wee t w p i ts B t i t i s pr e

o an n o o n . u

i l y thi s ki d f xi m th t Eu l id e u i t s
c se n o a T he the r
o a c n nc a e . o s

which m re directl y s ci ted wi th the ide f di pl eme t

a re o a so a a o s ac n

an d wi th the id e f gr up s the ve ry es whi ch he i mpl i ci tl y

a o o a re on

admi ts d which he d es t eve d em it e es ry t st te

an o no n e n c sa o a .

T h i s i s t t m u t t s yi g th t the the r we re i mi l ted

an a o n o a n a o s a ss a

fir st by us d th t c se q ue tl y the
an ti a f gr up e i ste d
on n no on o o x

pri r t l l the rs
o o a o .

The gr oup referred t o here is called the gr oup of Euclidean

m ovements and c on sists of all tran slati on s and r otati on s
in ordinary space I t s equations in finite f orm are the
.

well kn own equati ons f or tran sf orming t o new recta ngular

-

axes In other w ords th ose pr operties of figures that

.
,

d o n ot depend up on a ch oice of axe s are the ones with

which Euclid is c oncerned .

H owever we can s carcely agree that the n oti on of

,

gr oup had ever emerged int o human c on sci ousness and

had bec ome s o familiar that it was ign ored The Greek .
,

o f c ourse observed that handling figures of material ob jects

,

and m oving them ar ound did not disturb their size and
shape but the obser vati on br ought no intellectual resp onse
,

fr om him any m ore than it did fr om a bea v er w h o carried

,

his l ogs of w ood ar ound or fr om a bird w h o placed twigs ,

in a nest It t ook s everal centuries f or the race t o dev elop

.

t o the p oint where it c ould c onceive experie n ce as o ther

than it is U ntil this happened the n otion of gr oup
.
,

c ould not have existed S uch n oti ons are simply not .

existent at all rather than st ored up in an inherited mental

st oreh ouse .

We may l oose our fan cy again and supp ose the school
of Euclid of A lexandria discussi n g the questi on a s t o what
 9 0 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
containin g twenty f our operati ons -
and the ic osahedral ,

gr oup c ontaini n g Sixty operati on s They might even .

have f ound that the gr oup that leaves a plane invariant

is c ontinu ous in part and dis continu ous in part since ,

translati ons parallel t o the plan e a n d r otati on s ab out axes

perpen dicular t o it w ould leave it invariant and are con
t inu ou s but r o tati on s ab out axes in the plane w ould have
,

t o ha v e a ngles of 1 8 0 and w ould thus be disc onti n u ous

°
.

We see h ow much then the sch ool of Euclid missed n ot

, , ,

because they had no intuitive p ower not because they ,

c ould not reas on not because they c ould not draw physical
,

figures , but because the n oti on of conti n uo us gr oup did

n ot yet exist in the w orld of th ought It was twenty one .
-

and a half ce n turies bef ore Lie devel oped this n otion ,

alm ost by his ow n unaided p ower This is a m ost strik ing .

example that the great mathematician may receive his

hints fr om nature or fr om l ogic or fr om an attempt t o
, ,

find c omm on features and thus t o generalize yet it is his ,

ow n livi n g genius that brings f orth the really livi n g pr od

u c t s of th ought .

The gr oup n oti on in a ny f orm did n ot emerge until

near the cl ose of the eighteenth ce n tury appearing then ,

in c onnecti on with the pr oblem of s olving algebraic

equati ons S uch gr oups were made up of operat ors that
.

permuted a given s e t of n elements am ong themselve s ,

as,
f or example the r oots of an algebraic equati on of
,

o rder n These devel opments occur in the work of

.

Lagrange and Va nd ermond e in 1 7 7 0 The imp ortant ,

.

series of devel opments of Gal ois and C auchy that f oll owed
this algebraic begin nin g occupied s o much of the atten
ti on of the mathematical w orld f or a l ong time that a s ,

Klein says : O ne c onsidered in c onseque n ce of thi s

2 “

2
Hohere Geometrie
‘

,
2, p .
4 .
 Oper a t ors a nd R educti on to A lg orithms 9 1

p oi n t of view gr oups as fur n ishing an appendix t o a

treatise on algebra but certainly inc orrectly F or the
,
.

n oti on of gr oups appears wide spread and in alm ost ev ery

mathematical discipline ”
We find a similar remark
.

in Lie S ch eff er s : I n recent times the View bec omes

-
“ 2

m ore and m ore prevale n t that many bran ches of mathe

ma f ics are n othing but the the ory of i nvariants of special
”
gr oups .

A n example of c ontinu ous gr oup is the t otality of

h om oge n e ous linear substituti on s on n v ariables

i=
’

1,

a gr oup which is of great imp ortance ge ometrically If .

we limit the c oefficients a t o be integers we have a d is ,

c ontinu ous gr oup of much imp orta n ce in the the ory of

numbers The t otality of pr ojecti on s in space of three

.

dimensi ons gives us the pr ojective gr oup ; and its inva

riants pr ojective ge ometry The t otality of c onformal
,
.

transf ormation s of figures in a plane is given by the s e t

of analytic functi ons of z = x + iy which indicates the u s e ,

of an analytic functi on whe n c on sidered t o be an operat or

on 2 .

The the ory of c ontinu ous gr oups is due alm ost wholly t o
Lie a N orseman w h o studied the field of integrati on of
, ,

diff ere n tial equati on s very th or oughl y and thus came t o ,

pr oduce his w ork up on transf ormati on gr oups He was .

studyi ng this the ory when he was surprised in Paris in 1 8 7 0

by the F ra n c o Prussian War R etiring t o ou t of —the—way
-
.
-

places in F on t a ineb l ea u s o that he w ould not be i n ter

,

r up t ed his diagrams ar oused the suspici on s of the p olice

, ,

and he was arrested as a s p y D a rb oux h owever heari ng

.
, ,

2
C ontinu ierl iche Gr upp en p
( .
9 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of it s oon c onvinced the auth orities that his calculati ons
,

w ould n ot assist the Germans t o capture Paris and he w a s ,

pr omptly released In the th e ory of c ontinu ous gr oups

.

we s ee a n oti on that has been ev olved not at all fr om a

study of nature b u t fr om the pr of oun d insight of the
,

f ounder int o the very intricate character of dif ferential

and integral f ormulae The n otion once emerged has .

spread its win gs and has penetrated regions t o which it

was at first quite f oreign .

We turn ou r attenti on n ow t o the disc ontinu ous gr oups .

These may c ontain an i nfi nity of Operat ors or only a

finite number of them A s a very simple example we may .

c onsider the gr oup of all tra n sf ormati on s of the f orm :

— (I O
Yx + 6
'

where B y 8 are integers Evidently is prime t o B

a
, , ,
. a

and y as is 8 likewise A s tw o such tran sf ormati on s we

,
.

hav e f or example
, ,

2x +1
5 x +3
their pr oducts being
1 II _ +
I IxI4 3 3 x+ 1 9
( )
II I
x .
x
2 9x+ 3 7
( x .
x ) 2 6x +15
This class of substituti ons is of great service in the
s tudy of equivalent quadratic f orms in the the ory of

numbers By their mean s we unify the the ory and con

.

ne e t it with similar investigati on s elsewhere A very .

useful related gr oup is the m odular gr oup in which all the ,

numbers are taken m odulo s ome prime that is every , ,

number is divided by the prime and only the remainder

retained .
94 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
are fixed int o other f orms th e symb ol of cha nge The , .

center of interest has been Shifted fr om the fixed t o the

chan ging We enter the stream not t o let it fl ow past us
.
, ,

but t o be carried al ong with it We have c omprehended .

cha nge .

We thus c ome back t o the fundamental n oti on with

—
which we are deali ng the operat or that c onverts on e
object int o an other The last example we had in the
.

fi ni te gr oup as appli ed t o equati on s owes its imp ortance

t o the fact that all the r oots of the ic osahedral equati on
may be pr oduced fr om a ny one of them by the Operati on
of the linear substituti ons of the ic osahedral gr oup Bu t .

the ge n ius of Gal ois was ne cessary t o bridge the gap fr om

the work of Lagra nge on Symmetric functi ons and his
res olvent equati ons The n oti on of operat or was thus the
.

means in a d ouble sen se f or s olving the pr oblem .

Operat ors in general owed their origin t o other ideas

than the s oluti on of algebrai c equati ons The first t o .

c onceive of an operat or as an entity was Leibniz w h o ,

perceived th e S imilarity of the diff erential f ormula f or a

pr oduct t o the expansi on of a bin omial Lagrange t ook .

the definite step of separating the operat or fr om the

operand and gave the well kn own f ormula of fini te -

diff erences .

hd/ d x _1
A ” (e ) n
n
u .

S everal his s uccess ors gave f ormulae of a similar char

of

acter but with artificial and u n satisfying pr oofs The

,
.

first real appearance of the n oti on of operat or on a sub

s t a n t ia l basis was in an article by S er v ois He Sh owed 2
.

that the pr operties of the operat ors under c on siderati on

were due t o the f ormal laws of their c ombinati ons His .

2
A nn ma th p ures
. . et a pp .
, 5 (1 8 1 4 p .
93 .
 Oper a t or s a nd R edu ction to A lg or ithms 95

w ork was carried still farther by M urphy and Boole 2

.
2

Up on their devel opments rest th ose of the present day .

These laws are derived by c on sideri ng the operat ors t o

act only up on a general ra n ge They lead t o ( 1 ) equality .

o f operat ors ; ( 2 ) unif ormity and multif ormity ; (3 ) sum ;

(4 ) pr oduct ; ( 5 ) multiplicati on f a cien t s ; ( 6 ) c orrelative ,

multiplicati ons ; ( 7 ) limitati on types as c ommutativity -

, ,

or o thers ; ( 8 ) simultane ous statements ; ( 9 ) iterati on

:

( 1 0 ) distributivity .

The presen t day devel opments are due t o Pi n cherle

- 3
,

B ourlet 4 M oore
,
5 F r éch et (papers on lin e functi on s
,
-
,

The range in these later ones is a range of functi ons and ,

the operat or c onverts a functi on int o s omethi ng else .

S o imp orta n t and widespread has the n oti on bec ome that
one is tempted t o assert t h at the wh ole of mathematics

c ould be expressed as the res ul t of pur ely arbitrary m odes

of c ombi n ati ons of operat ors the applied mathematics c on ,

sisting in the assignment of the range of the operat ors .

This w ould be the reducti on of mathematics t o the science

of alg orithms We w ould thus be led int o a pure f ormalis m
.

which while it might dem onstrate the ability of the mi n d

,

t o build castles in S pai n w ould n ot give th em the truth of ,

reality which mathematics p ossesses Th ough of vast .

imp ortance the the ory of Operat ors and of gr oup s is onl y
,

on e of the ma n y ways in which the mind attacks its pr ob

lems It is not the g oal of mathematics nor the means of

.
,

s olvi ng all pr oblems The mind has faced the pr oblem of .

2
P hil . Tra ns . Roy . S oc L ond
. .
,
1 27 p . 1 79 .

2
P hil . Tr a ns . Roy . S oc L ond . .
,
1 34 p . 2 25 ; a nd M a th .

A na l y s is f
o L ogic pp . 1 5
—1
9 .

3 Ency c d es . s ci . ma th ,
T o me II , V ol 5 , Fa s c
. . 1 .

4 A nn . Ecol e N or ma l e 14 p . 1 33 .

5 Gen era l A na l y s is .
9 6 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
change and tran s mutati on and h a s resp onded with a
vast creati on j ust a s it faced the pr oblem of the collecti on
,

or ensemble the pr oblem of di mensi onality t h e pr oblem

, ,

of synthesi s of elements the pr oblem of con cept r elative , , ,

and o thers in ea ch case resp onding with a sublime crea

,

tion It d oes not h owever f orget that there are others of

.
, ,

its creati ons equally vast And in the future we Shall be .

able t o create n ew ideas which like number space combi , , ,

nati on operati on will Open vistas of new w orlds that we

, ,

have made p ossible In tracing the origin and gr owth of .

these a s well a s the others yet t o be c onsidered we w ill

, ,

bec ome all the m ore a s sured a s t o the character of the

future .

RE F ERE NCES
M ill e r Hi s tori ca l S k etch of the T heory of G roup s of Fi ni te
,

Orde r Bib M a th pp 3 1 7 3 2 9
—
”
,
10 . . . .

Poinca ré L Av enir d es ma thé ma t i q ues Bul l S oc M a th

“
,
’ ”
,
. . .

d e F ra nce 3 2 pp 1 68 —1 9 0 ; t ra ns in Bull A mer

,
. . . .

M a th S oc . 12 pp 4 . 2 0—2 60 .

Hil b e rt ,
P r bl ms
o e of Ma them t i cs a ,
”
Bull . A mer . M a th S oc . .

8 —
PP 4 3 7 4 7 4
Burns ide ,
Ency cl op a ed ia Br ita nnica , rt icl e G r up a o .

Dick s on ,
“
p rt
Re o on the Recent Pr g ress in the The ry o o of

L inea r G r up s o ,
”
B ul l . A mer . M a th . S oc . 6
pp . 13
—2
7 .
9 8 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of dimensi ons C ertain functi ons of the vari ous
tw o .

c ouples of variables turn ou t t o be of particular usefuln ess ,

a s f or example the duplexes (a b ) a n d (x y ) furnish the

, , , ,

f uncti on a x + by wh ose van ishi ng indicates that the

,

v ect ors are perpendicular The function ; is

called the length of the vect or (a b ) A ls o we have the ,
.

—
functi on a y b x which may be called the vector pr oduct
,

of the t w o vect ors and wh ose v anishing indicate s that

they are parallel We ma y define a new duplex which we

.
,

call the pr oduct of the t w o duplexes (a b ) and (x y ) by , , ,

—
the expressi on (a x by a y + b x) Likewise in space of .
,

three or more dimensi ons we can d o the same thin g and , ,

indeed this is what is usually d one in the different treat

,

ments of vect or analysis We may l ook at complex .

numbers such as a + b l / 1 fr om this p oint of View d oing

, ,

away with the imagi nary The inability of many mathe .

ma t icia n s t o take any o ther p oint of View than this

leads t o c onsiderable c onf usi on and lack of clear thinking ,

as is Sh own f or example in s ome of the remarks ab out

, ,

quaterni ons Thus we find D eM orga n saying : I think

.
“ I

the time will c ome when d ouble algebra will be the begin
ner s t ool ; and quaterni ons will be where d ouble algebra
’

is n ow
”
O n the other hand we hear L ord Kelvin com
.
,
2

plain : Quaterni ons came fr om Hamilt on after his really

g ood w ork had been d on e ; and th ough beautifully ,

ingeni ous have been an unmixed evil t o th ose wh o have

,

t ouched them in any way including C lerk M axwell ,

.

We may repeat the Opini on of the philos opher Russell 3

,

on the imaginary and on related objects

All the f ru i t ful uses of i ma gin a ri es in G eomet ry a re thos e , ,

which b egin a nd end with r ea l q ua nt ities a nd u s e ima gina ries ,

2
f Ha mil ton Vol 3
Lif e o ,
.
,
p .
49 3 .
2
Lif e o f Lord K el vin, p . 1 1 38 .

3 F ou nd a tions o Geometr
f y p .
45 .
 Hy p er numb ers a nd R educti on to A lgeb r a 99

onl y f the i te rmedi te step s

or n T sp k f ex mpl e a . o ea ,
or a ,

o f pr j ct ive pr p r ti
o e which r fe r t t h ircul r p i t i
o e es e o e c a o n s, s a

m re m m i t h i
e e f pu rel y l g br i c l pr p erti s ; t h
or a ec n ca or a e a a o e e

circul r p i ts a t t o n b e f u d i sp e but l y i
a re no o o n n ac ,
on n

the xil i ry q u ti t ies by whi h g e m t ri c l e q u t i

au a an c o e a a ons a re

t r f rmed T h t
a ns o c t r di ct i s ri e f r m the g
. a no on a on a s o eo

m t ri c l i t rpret t i s f i m gi ri s i s t w d rf l ; f
e a n e a on o a na e no on e u or

they i te rpreted s l l y by t h r l s f l gebr whi h w e

a re n o e e u e o a a, c

m y d mi t
a a v l id i th ir i te rpret t i t i m gi ri s
as a n e n a on o a na e .

The p e rcep ti f sp ce b e i g wh ll y b e t Al g br
on o ul es a n o a s n , e a r

s upreme d i c i ste cy n ri se
,
an no n ons n ca a .

The pp site view is t be f und in the remarks of

o o o o

B e n jamin Peirce : 2

_
T hi s symb l 1 i s r est ri cted t a preci se signific ti
/ o ,
1 I ,
o a on

as the repr ese t t ive f p e rp e di c l ri ty i q u te r i s

n a d o n u a n a n on ,
an

thi s w d e rful l g ebr f p ce i i t i m tel y dep e d e t up

on a a o s a s n a n n on

the speci l use f t h symb l f i ts symmet ry el eg ce d

a o e o or ,
an ,
an

p we r The imm rt l uth r f q u te r i s h sh w th t

o . o a a o o a n on as o n a

ther e the r ig nifi t i whi h m y tt ch t the s ymb l

a re o s ca ons c a a a o o

in the r c ses
o B t the st r g st use f the s ymb l i s t be
a . u on e o o o

f u d i i ts m gi c l p w er f d ub li g the ctu l uni ve rse d

o n n a a o o o n a a an

pl ci g by it sid e ide l u iverse its ex ct c u te rp rt with

a n s an a n ,
a o n a ,

whi ch i t b e c mp red d c t r sted d by me s f

ca n o a an on a ,
an ,
an o

cu ri usl y c ect i g fib e r s f rm with i t

o onn rg i c wh l e
n ,
o an o an o ,

f r m whi ch m d er
o l ysi s h d evel p ed he r su rp ssi g
o n a na as o a n

ge met ry
o .

That the imaginary has been of tremend ous imp ortance

in the hist ory of the w orld n o one will pretend t o deny .

The pr oblem is t o acc ount f or it and t o explain h ow it

yields truth If as Russell believes the u s e of the
.
, ,

imaginary p oints at i nfinity leads t o real a n d valid

results f or actual s pace then either all the ge ometrical ,

a n alysis depe nds s olely up on algebrai c n oti on s t o carry

2
A mer . J our . M a th , 4 p . 216 .
1 00 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
it thr ough in which case an i maginary p oint is a s real
,

a s any o ther p oint f or in neither case are we really talking

,

—
ab out p oi ts in space or else part of the time we are
n

talking ab out ge ometric entities part of the time ab out

,

s omething else in which case it is hard t o s ee h ow n on

,
'

ge ometric things can pr ove anything ab out ge ometric

entities Yet no ge ometer has any scruples at any
.

m oment ab out using imaginary p oints just as freely as

real p oints They ma y even be intr oduced with out any
.

reference t o algebra .

We are concerned in algebra with negative numbers ,

with the imaginary and the c omplex numbers and with ,

o thers ,
all of them c oming under the one name hyper
number s The numerical element is not of particular
.

interest only the s o called unit or qualitative part of the

,
-

number T o each unit there c orresp onds a ran ge which

.

is the arithmeti cal character of the hy p ernumb er These .

ranges ma y be finite or infinite and need not be con

t inu ou s . Indeed they may bec ome themselves hyper
,

numbers Thus t o the r oots of the equati on x + 2 x + 7

.
2
,

c orresp ond the numerical v alues 1 and

f or the units — 1 a nd i; but we write the same number
in other f orms as in which the
units are now to and ( 0 where and the numerical
2

c oefficients of the units are 1 t and 1 x l / 2 We may .

als o s ee incidentally here that these numbers are not the

same duplexes in the t w o meth ods of writing a significant ,

fact I n deed we can ch oose a unit such that the r oot of

.
,

the equati on ceases t o be a duplex at all namely if we, ,

write it as
1/ 7 ( cos 0+ i Sin
where
cos 0= —l / Sin 0= l/
7 é .
102 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
The c omplex number a + bi bec omes then the linear
, ,

substituti on

Bu t in the f ormer case h ow justify the statementis on e to

1+ 1 = 0 = 1 + sy m 1 or in the latter the statement
.
,

i
2
1 Evide n tly the only way ou t is t o assert that in
the first case 1 and 0 as well as 1 are all only places on
, ,

a scale In the latter case 1 0

. 1 and i are all equally , , ,

linear s ubstituti on s N ow we are pretty well assured

.
,

mathematically that i ca n be used like any other number .

F or instance a the ore m due t o Gauss asserts that a prime

,

of the f orm 4 u + 1 is always fact orable in the field of

c ompl e x numbers int o the pr oduct of t w o c onjugate

imaginaries which is equivalent t o a the orem of F ermat s
,
’

that a prime of this f orm is always the s um of t w o S quare s .

F or insta n ce ,

— — zi
( I ) zi , (s ),
— — zi
( 1 4t) , (s )
D id Gauss imagine f or a m oment that he was not dealin g
with numbers but was s olving pr oblems ab out linear
,

s ubstituti ons " O r did he imagine that his numbers were

n ot 5 ,
13 17 ,
29 but were the duple x es ( 5
, ,

(1 3, ( 7
1 ( 9 0)
2
,
fact orable as duplexes but
, ,

n ot as numbers B ecause we have f ound an is om orphism ,

may we assert that we have f ound the thing itself "

The same questi on h a s really arisen bef ore in the ,

defin iti on of rati o Is the list of rati os wh ose numerat ors

.

are divisible by their de n omin ators the same as the list of

integers or merely is om orphic t o th em ; and bein g a s ub
gr oup of a larger class it be comes c onvenient t o thr ow
,
 Hy pernumb ers a mt R educti on to A lgeb r a 1 03

o verb oard the i n tegers and use the rati os of this type
instead of them " When the n egative was first i n tr o
d u ce d t o s olve such an equati o n as x + 5 3 we may be
=
,

quite sure the mathematician w h o invented the n egative

did not have in mind the relati on s y m N or did he think .

of 3 5 and x a s relati ons

, ,
N or did the mathematician
.

w h o created the imaginary in s olving such an equati on as

— —
4 imagi n e f or a m oment that his x and his 4 were
2
x ,

linear substituti ons a n d not numbers A ny such hyp o .

thesis manifestly is hist orically not true A ny o ther .

hyp othesis than that these numbers were direct creati on s

of n o ti ons necessary t o c omplete the list o f numbers is n o t

tenable and we may i nfer that the mi n d likewise must

,

have created the integers in its endeav ors t o handle the

w orld of objects If s ome numbers are direct creati ons
.

a n d n o t residues of phen ome n a then all are ,

.

The pr oblem can be illustrated perhaps by a fresh

example fr om the Kummer the ory of ideal numbers If .

we examine the number 6 we find that it has the fact ors

,

2 and 3 which are integers Bu t als o if 0 + we fin d 2

.
,

that we may express 6 as the pr oduct of the fact ors

and 1 0 There are then t w o ways t o fact or 6 i n t o what
.
, ,

we call integral factors N ow the numbers 2 3

.
, , ,

1 — 0 cann o t be br oken up int o integr al fact ors in the

,

f orm of either p ositive or negative numbers nor numbers

of the f orm x + 9y The questi on arises the n as t o h ow
.
, ,

it is that 6 can be fact ored i n t o t w o d iff erent f orms which ,

have no c omm on fact ors themselves If we c on sider .

that 2 4 can be fact ored int o 8 and 3 or i n t o 6 and 4 we ,

s ee at once that the reas on lies in the fact that 8 and 6

have the c omm on fact or 2 and that in 8 times 3 we have

,

transferred the fact or 2 fr om the 6 t o the other fact or 4 ,

giving 8 t imes 3 Bu t in the case ab ove there is no s uch

.
1 04 P hilos op hy of Ma thema tics
p ossibility Since each one of each pair of fact ors is irr ed u
,

cible in the field Kummer suggested since the number

.
,

2 fr om o ther c onsiderati ons beha v es like a square in this

d omai n that we wr ite it a s the square of an id eal number

, ,

a,
2 = a F or if w e c onsider x + 0y x and y b oth od d
2
.
'
, ,

(x 5 y ) + 2 xy 0 is even and divisible by 2

2 2
,

while x + 0y is not divisible by 2 We find als o s ince .

,

—
( 1 9) is divisible by 3 but neither n or ,

1
— 0 is divisible by 3 that 3 behaves li ke a number with ,

t w o ideal fa c t ors 6 6 Thus we s ee that , 2.

6 a Ba B
I Z.

N ow ,it is ob vi ous that we can fact or 6 not only in one ,

way but als o in an other and the other fa ct ors of 6 Sh oul d

, ,

turn ou t t o be
a fi and I
— 0= a 6 l 2,

which is the ca s e By the intr oducti on of these ideal .

numbers which are not in the d omain of the integer s and

,

the c omp ounds of 0 we have rest ored simplicity t o the ,

system We are able now t o state that every number of

.

the d omain x + 0y not equal t o zer o or =i=1 is either a prime

n umber that is irreducible or else it is a number which
, , ,

is a pr oduct uniquely determinable of numbers of th e d o

main that are prime or else of such numbers and ideal ,

numbers Thus 6 is the pr oduct of f our fact ors all

.
,

ideal whi ch may be gr ouped in vari ou s ways Al l these

,
.

ideals may be expressed in terms of a and numbers which .

are ideal and of the f orm S o that by putting a

int o the system we have preserved the laws of the system
of integers and at the same time we have extended ou r
,

s ystem of integer s The p oint we need t o dwell up on here

.

is that by t he creati on of new integers we ha v e extend e d

 06 Philos ophy of Ma thema ti cs
because there is the cow and the h orse and the team which ,

ma k e three distin ct thi ngs It is only the intr oducti on of

.

p ostulati onal meth ods which underta k e t o devise sy mb ol s

t o which are assi g ned certain exp licit pr operties which ,

makes us f orget the origin of these numbers M ore exactly

‘

stated these p ostulati on al entities are is om orphic with the

,

realities that mathematicians deal with and get their ,

existence the orems fr om this is om orphism and not the

reverse .

The negative number was devised t o permit the s olu

ti on of such equati on s as x + 6 = 4 The creat or of
.

these fictiv e numbers (as they were called ) had no other

n oti on than that he was dealing with the same 6 a nd the
same 4 that he had al w ays been dealing with That .

the use of these negatives was evaded as l ong as p ossible

in the hist ory of mathematics is merely a result of the
law of mental inertia which shu n s c omple x ity and travels
on the simple path as l on g as p ossible B u t when the
.

f orce of a l ove of harm ony a n d c ompleteness has reached

a str ong en ough deflecting p ower the straight line path
,

is n o l onger p ossible the mind creates a wider d omain

,

f or its m o ti on and a n ew bra n ch of learning is available

,

f or disc overies .

T O wh om the idea of the negative is due is not certain .

It is ascribed t o D i ophantus by s ome by others t o the

,

Hind oo mathematician Brahmagupta ab out 5 00 A D

, , ,

but it is certain that it appears in the algebra of Bhaskara

In the fifteenth century C hu q u et interpreted
negative numbers a n d S tifel early in the sixteenth century
speaks of absurd numbers less than zer o S tevin late
,
.

in the sixtee n th century made use of the n egative r oots

of equati ons ,
and in the seventee n th century Girard
pla ced negativ e numbers on a par with the ordin ary
 Hy p ernumb ers a nd R edu ction to A lgeb r a 1 07

numbers It is true that a hundred years earlier C ardan

.

had stated n egative numbers as r oots of equati ons but he ,

c on sidered them as imp ossible s oluti on s mere symb ols , ,

a vie w held by s ome of his success ors of the nineteenth

ce n tury Even Pascal regarded th ose w h o believed that
.

they c ould subtract 4 fr om 0 as h orrible examples of ,

blind n ess in the face of shi ni ng verity .

The d ifli cu l ty of c ourse is very apparent now It lay

, ,
.

in the ide n tificati on of integers with objects O f c ourse no .

on e can ta k e away 4 objects when there are n o object s

present at all Bu t taki n g away 4 objects and s ubtracti ng

.

4 fr om 0 are n o t at all the same thi n g O n e mi ght as well .

de ny the existence of fracti ons such as because if one

, ,

were t o cut a man i n t o 2 halves he w ould not have a ,

man but only a carcass There are s ome objects that

,
.

d o n o t admit the idea of fracti on .

There are s ome .

that d o n ot admit the idea of irrati onal There are .

s ome that d o not admit the idea of negative Bu t .

there are others in each case that d o admit the idea .

While livi n g b odies cann ot be cut in half as a rule we , ,

may divide up a pile of sand i n t o many fracti ons Wh ile .

grai n s of san d d o n ot admit of irrati on als yet the diag o ,

na l s of recta n gles d o admit irrati onals While s ilver .

d ol lars d o not admit being negative on e s ba nk acc ount ,

’

may if pr operly secured These vari ous examples merely

,
.

fur n ish occasi on s f or the empl oyment of n egative num

bers irrati onal n umber s and the like they d o n ot pr ove
, , ,

their existence The existence the orem of such numbers

.

—
indeed of all numbers includin g integers is n ot t o be
, ,

f ou n d in c on crete experience but in ideal e x perience

, .

Whatever is c on sistent with that structure of kn owledge

which the race has built up is ideally existent The .

mathematician is rej oiced whe n his ideal c onstructi ons

 1 08 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
are f ound t o be practically u s eful b ut he d oes n ot desi g n ,

them primarily f or that end .

We may consider next the s o—called imaginary num

bers The first explicit use of them appears t o be in the
.

s oluti on of a cubic given by B ombelli t oward the cl ose ,

of the S ixteenth century C ardan had already furnished.

the f ormul a which in the case of t hree real r oots demands

the extracti on of a cube r oot of t w o c omplex numbers .

In the pr oblem cited the equati on is ,

3=
x 1 5 x +4 .

C ardan f ormula leads t o finding the cub e r oot of

:
’
s

2+ 1 11 / I which is 2 + l / and of 2 — 1 11/ — 1 which

is 2 The c orresp onding r oot of the equati on is

—
4,
the o th er t w o r oo t s being 2 i l /
g A wh ole century .

went by before mu ch w a s ac complished with the imagi

narie s Then de M oi vre in the eighteenth century ( 1 7 3 8 )
.

gav e his celebrated f ormul a Thir ty s ix years previ ously .

-

Leibniz and B ern oulli had s een that the dec omp ositi on
of rati onal fra cti on s f or integrati on might lead t o com

plex den ominat ors which pr oduced l ogarithms of com

,

plex nu mbers In 1 7 1 4 C ote s s h owed that

.

l og .
( cos x + i s in x ) = ix .

D uring the eighteenth centur y the pr ogress was fairly

rapid and t oward the cl ose of this century the com
,

plex n umber had be come s o general ly rec ognized as a

me mber of th e mathematical family that v ari ous mathe
ma t icia n s u ndert ook t o find a ge ometrical justificati on
f or it s existence A D anish mathematician Wessel near
.
, ,

the clos e of the eighteenth century devel oped the

meth od now v ery commonl y u s ed f or the representa
ti on of complex n umbers in a plane We under .
 1 10 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
c ultivated and the place of the imaginary w a s now
,

assured F or the detailed hist ory reference must be made

.
,

t o the Ency cl op é die d es s ciences ma théma tiques T ome I , ,

V ol 1 F as c 3
.
,
In 1 8 3 3 S ir W R Hamilt on under
. . . .

t ook the treatment of the c omplex number as a c ouple or a

duplex of t w o real numbers His intenti on was t o f ound .

algebra entirely on the n oti on of time that is t o s a y s u c , ,

cessi on or as we might better s a y n ow up on the n oti on of

, ,

a well ordered set The chief imp orta n ce of his investiga

'
-
.

ti on aside fr om its bei ng an early attempt at the a rithme

,

t iz a t ion of mathematics lies in the fact that he n ot only ,

c on sidered c ouples but investigated triples and sets in ,

general This was the beginn i ng of general algebra and

.

was f oll owed by the creati on of the next extensi on of

numbers namely quater ni on s
, ,
.

Hamilt on s creati on of the quater n i on n umbers was

’

due t o the suggesti on fr om the ge ometrical represen tati on

of the imaginary in a pla n e that there ought als o t o be

numbers that would be represented by the vect ors in space

of three dimensi on s This is a very g ood e x ample of the.

interplay of mathematical meth ods An an alytical pr ob

. .

lem is put i n t o a ge ometric form a n d this in turn suggests ,

s ome new an alytic devel opment that o therwise w ould

n ot have been th ought of I n the same way ge ometric .

pr oblems when put int o an alytic f orm ofte n have s ug

, ,

gested by the an alytic f orm obvi ous c orrelated pr oblems

or e x te n si ons The object of Hamilt on in this case was
.

n ot t o devise a ge ometric calculus as has been s ometimes ,

inc orrectly stated but t o exte n d the realm of n umbers

,
.

His p r evi ous w ork on ge n eral algebra pr oves this but ,

f ortu n ately we have his ow n acc ou n t of h ow he came t o

invent quaterni ons w hich makes this als o perfectly ,
2

2
P hil . M as 25 pp 49 0
-
49 5
 Hy p ernumb ers a nd R educti on to A lgeb r a 11 1

cle ar In quater n i on s there is a d ouble i nfin ity of

.

imagi naries a ny on e of which with real n umbers con

, , ,

s t it u t e s the ordi n ary c omplex d omain

,
They are li nearly .

exp r essible in terms of any three of them which are

linearly independe n t The pr oduct of any t w o of the .

three imagi naries h owever intr oduced the first variati on

, ,

fr om the laws of c ombinati on previ ously existi ng namely , ,

that we have n o l onger c ommutative pr oducts but s k ew , ,

that is if — i l = — k l i — h and o quater n i on s

, j j e j e,
i t w , ,

d o n ot even have the skew multiplicati on of the three

imagi nary units f or if the quaterni ons are :
, ,

— —
q r= rq + 2 i (y d -
ao ) + 2j ( zb dx ) + 2 h (xc y b ) .

Hamilt on spent the latter part of his life in devel opi ng the
algebra of quaterni on s and its applicati on t o ge ometry of
three dimensi on s His w ork was carried on als o by Tait
.

and J oly The fun cti onal s ide of the devel opment of
.

quaterni ons is Sl ow owing t o the n on c ommutative char

,
-

acter of the pr oduct .

Weierstrass investigated later the questi on of fin din g

such exte n si ons of ordin ary algebra as reta in the ass ocia
tive and c ommutative laws His result is that there are n o .

such exit ns ions bey ond the use of vari ous imaginary u n it s
,

like l / — 1 but wh ose pr oducts with each other va n ish .

,

This is a case of the creati on of nilf a c t oria l n umbers I n .

such an algebra it is n ot p ossible t o have u n ique divisi on

in every case I n deed the study of the d omains in which
.
,

divisi on is unique f or the conti nu ous range sh ow s that

the only cases are arithmetic ordinary algebra c omplex , ,

numbers and real quaterni on s

, .
1 12 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
We find the s ource of an endless series of discussi on s
and disputes in the asserti ons that the pr oduct of t w o
vect ors may be a scalar or may n ot be may be a v ect or or ,

may not be may be a bivect or or s omething else O f

, .

c ourse the c onfu si on c omes fr om statements exa ctly

’

S imilar t o saying that 2 feet l on g times 3 feet wide gives 6

square feet The real multiplicati on is that of the num
.

bers 2 and 3 The feet are incidental S O the pr oduct of

. .

t w o vect ors in space is a n imp ossible thi n g The only .

pr oduct is that of the numbers which the vect ors rep r e

sent What such pr oduct is can never be determined
.

fr om the vect ors but on ly fr om the numbers and their

,

character It has been urged that Hamilton was w orking

.

only f or a ge ometrical calculus Bu t besides the previ ous

.

answer t o this false c onclusi on we can p oi n t t o his articles

o n the ic osian game in which he calls the numbers with
,

which he is dealin g n ew r oots of unity They f oll ow

,
.

a m ore c omplicated law than that of i j k and give , , , ,

indeed in their multiplicati on the ic osahedral gr oup

,
.

Later C ayley c on sidered the operat ors of an abstract

gr oup as r oots of a symb oli cal equati on thus makin g ,

them hy p ernu mb er s .

We may sum up the result of the hist orical study

of the devel opment of hy p ernumb er s as f oll ows :The
widest d omain we have discussed yet is quaterni ons .

If the hy p ernu mb er s are a subclass of quater n i ons of the

f orm x + iy then we have c omplex numbers The s ub
,
.

class of this which c on sists of the s o called reals is the -

number d omain of ordin ary algebra The p ositive s u b .

class oi this again is the d omain of arithmetic

, ,
.

This brings us t o the c onsiderati on of what is the m ost

general field of hy p ernu mb er and we find that the ques
,

ti on is unanswerable just a s there is no m ost general space

,
 14 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
unity we hav e f or n generat ors a system of 2 different
,
"

units in terms of which the algebra can be e x pressed .

The pr oducts of even order are evidently c ommutative

with any other pr oducts Th ose of od d order are S kew
.

with each o ther T hese algebras are applicable t o space

.

of n d imensi ons and include the Grassman n pr oducts of

ve ct ors a s particular pr oducts .

The algebra of n units of the f orm eij such that

2

j 7 5 l
=l
j
fur n ishes numbers which have all the laws of c ombinati on
of matrices of order n A n algebra of thi s character is
.

called a quadrate .

Whatever the f orm in w hich these vari ous particular

algebras may be studied the hy p ernumb er s are the
,

abstract structures wh ose c on crete f orms are u n der con

siderati on Just as we may study gr oups in the f orm of
.

substitution gr oups or linear gr oups or other f orms while , ,

the basis remains the the ory of abstract Operat ors s o here ,

w e sh ould not let a ny c oncrete applicati on of the algebra

obscure the fact that the fundamental the ory is that of

h y p ernu mb er s which are the u n derlying abstract entities

,

with which we really hav e t o d o The n oti on of hyper .

number or algebraic imaginary is distinct f r om that of

, ,

numerical value or ran ge ; distinct fr om that of man ifold ;

als o distinct fr om th at of operat or F r om this p oint of .

View the algebraic d omains (corp or a fields ) are included ,

as particular cases of the hy p ernumb ers of a simple type .

F or instance the Gal ois the ory of equati ons c on sists in t h e

,

disc overy of the particular algebra which c ontains the

n umbers necessary t o s olve the equati on F or example .
,

4 —
the r oots of x 2 2 x 4 8 x 2 2
are rati onally express
 Hy pernu mb ers a nd R edu cti on to A lgeb r a 1 15

ible in terms of the r oots of x 4 F or the

r oots of the latter are

—V VE
3 - = —
p,

while the r oots of the f ormer are

VS V5 = —
p
3
+ 5p e )/ z o,

—V z + 1/ 3

2 10

The the ory of gr oups sh ows that these equati ons have
r oots rati onally expressible in ter m s of p A n other Simple .

case c onsists of the abstra ct field of M oore .

The equati ons of which the hy p ernu mb er s are the r oots

are called the characteristic equati ons of th e numbers .

Their coefli cient s are in n o way diff erent fr om any other

ordinary numbers In hy p ernumb er s we have the n a
.
, ,

m ost decisive example of the creative character of mathe

ma t ics
. These numbers and theref ore all n u mbers
parallel the natural w orld as we s ee in the u s e of hyper
,

n umbers t o study v ect ors but they transcend it in the

,

same way that hyperspaces and non Euclidean spaces -

tra n sce n d it The reality of these c on cepti on s h ow ever

.
, ,

is e x actly the same as that of the ones which fit the

natural w orld Hy p ernu mb er s and hyperspaces have
.

fi n ally s olved the riddle of the u n iverse of mathematics

a n d have even illumi n ated the shad ows of the riddle of

the world of natural s cience .

1 16 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
We find s till f urther extensi ons of hy p ern umb er in the
f un ctional transformati ons of integr al equati o ns The .

transf ormati on

ma y , f orinstance ,
su m t r a ns f or
mati ons like

M) s Lox t ax ) d t

Jinx ) d t+

whi ch are n othi ng m ore than idemp ote n ts and dire ct

nilp otents O ther e x te n si on s are als o in sight
. .

RE FERE NC E S
Bou t roux , Sur l a rel t i d e l l g eb
a on
’
a re a l
’
a na l y s e ma th .
,

P r oc I n t
. . C ongr es s a t Rome, Vol 3 , . pp .
3 81 —
3 84 .

G ibb s ,
“
M ult ipl e Al gebr a,
”
P roc A mer . . A s s oc . A dv . S ci .

35 P 37
Ma cfa rl a n e ,
A Re p rt o on Recent P r gres
o s in the Qua te rnion
yi
A na l s s , P roc A mer A s s oc A d v S ci
. . . . .
, 51 pp .

—
3 05 3 2 6 .
1 18 Philos ophy of Ma thema ti cs
game as a pleasant way t o visualize his new hy p ernumb ers ,

of whi ch the squares of s ome the cubes of o thers and , ,

the fifth p owers of o thers were unity The ic osian game .

is t o pass fr om one of the vertices of a d odecahedr on t o

each of the others al on g the edges s o as t o reach each ,

vertex once That mathematics may start in s ome amuse

.

ment such as this is n o detracti on S aid M on t es q uieu :

, ,
.
I

“
A S there is an infinity of wise things c on ducted in a very
f oolish way s o there are f ollies c onducted in a very wise
,
”
way . In the game it is the c ombinati on the transiti on , ,

that pleases the mathematician not the mere wi n ning In ,

.

the play he may receive suggesti ons from which imp ortant
the ories fl ow .

We may easily reduce a large part of arithmeti c t o

tra n siti on s S tarti ng with an object called the un it we
.
,

may c onsider that numbers are the m odes of transition t o

o ther objects F or instance by the pr ocess of additi on w e
.
,

arrive at the wh ole integral scale by the pr ocess of s u b , ,

tracti on we arrive a t the negative scale by multiplicati on ,

a n d divisi on we reach the rati onal scale By o ther p r o .

cesses w e intr oduce the irrati onals We would then de .

fine the integers the rati onals the irrati onals as stages
, , ,

of the iterati on or c ombinati o n of pr ocesses We may .

ge n eralize these pr ocesses m ore and m ore reaching fin ally , , ,

unspecified ordinal sets Indeed it has been sh own many .

,

times that with certain generati ng relati on s it is p ossible

t o c on struct the wh ole the ory of n umber These g enera t .

ing relati ons are simple cases of pr ocesses .

In the same way by the pr ocesses of pr ojecti on of ,

intersecti on a n d o thers we need n ot st op t o list all p ro

, ,

j ec t iv e ge ometry may be c on structed O ther pr ocesses .

will give us metrical ge ometry M odes of arrangement .

,

2
Q d by L
u ot e u ca s , Recr ea tions ma théma tiq u es , t tl e-p a i g e, Vol . 1 .
 Pr oces s es and R edu cti on to Tr a ns mu t a ti ons 1 19

the calculus of classes and relati ons the the ory of opera ,

ti ons algebra may all be reduced t o statements in terms

, ,

o f tra n siti on s or pr ocesses S o it might seem that w e have .

at last a suff icient characterizati on of mathematics This .

would seem t o be m ore certain when we rec og nize that

transiti on s have their invariants their functi on alities a nd , ,

are a fruitful s ource of inversi on s by creati on of n ew ele

ments Royce undertakes t o fin d herein a system which
.
2
,

he calls a The ory of O rder that is fundamental f or the

“ ”
,

philos ophy of the future and is t o include all order system s ,

-

up on which the present the oretical sciences depend f or

the deducti ons He gives it the f oll owing pr operties
.

1 .Tha t the numb er s el ements or modes of a ct ion which , ,

const i tute th is l ogica l l y necess a ry system 2 exi st in sets b oth

finite a nd infinit e in numb e r a nd b oth in d ense se ri es in
“ ”
, ,

cont inuous series a nd in fa ct in a l l p oss ibl e seria l typ es

”
, , , .

2 .Tha t such systems a s the whol e numb e r se ries the se ri es -

,

of f r a ct i ona l numb e r s the r ea l numbe rs etc cons eq uentl y

, ,
.
,

enter into t he const itut ion of thi s system T he a ri thmet ica l .

cont inuum f or in st a nce is a p a rt of the system 2

, , .

3 T ha t th i s s yst em a l so in cl ud es in i ts comp l exit i es a l l the

.

t yp es of order wh ich a pp ea r t o be re q uir e d by t h e g eomet ri ca l

theories recog n ized a t prese nt p roj ect ive a nd met ri ca l , .

4 Tha t the r e l a t i ons a mon g st the l ogi ca l e nt i t i es in q ues

.

t ion na mel y the mod es of a ction of which th i s s ystem 2 i s

, , ,

comp osed a re not onl y dya dic b ut in ma ny ca ses p ol ya di c in

, ,

the most va rious w a y .

Fr m
the fact that modes of acti on while they result
o ,

in creati ons and ideal c onstructi ons yet have certain ,

ne cessary features he seems t o think he has herein ,

f ound the l ong s ought abs olute truth The creati ons he
-
.
,

observes h owe v er are merely apparent f or the s o called

, , ,
-

2
Ency cl op ed ia f
o the P hil os op hica l S ciences , Vol . 1 ,
p . 1 34 .
1 20 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
c reati on of the order—types is in fact a finding of the
f orms that cha r a cter ize a l l ord er l y a ctivi ty , j us t in so f ar

as i t is and is theref ore n o caprici ous creation of

ord er l y

his private and pers onal whim or desire The onl y

remark that we would a d d t o this is that while mathe ,

ma t ics it is true registers the result of the activity

, ,

of v ari ous mathematicia n s minds c ollectively and thus

’

Sh ows the manner in which intelligent mind has acted it ,

is not theref ore t o be concluded be cau se thes e are orderly

and c onsistent that these m odes of activity are not sp on
t a neou s acts and unf oreseeable as t o the future which ,

characteristic makes them creative The scientist als o .

registers the way matter has acted but that he has ex ,

h a u s t ed its acti on s f or all time he is n ot presumptu ous

en ough t o supp ose M ind seems t o carry with it con
.

s t a n t l y it s previ ous results and once havi n g created it s

, , ,

creati on never disappears .

H owever we can scarcely s a y that we may n ow reduce

,

all mathematics t o mere pr oblems in pr ocesses The .

essential feature of the the ory of numbers is not the m ode

of arriving at the c ontinuum or ot her ensemble but th e ,

e n semble itself We might consider ev en that we have

.

an ensemble of stages in a pr ocess but s o far as these are ,

crystallized int o individuals they cease t o relate t o tran

s it ions . The t hi ng studied is t he colle cti on of i n di
vid ua l s . In ge ometry the figure and its pr operties are
the interesti ng thin g a n d n ot the m ode of generati on
,
.

In arran geme n ts in l ogistic in the ory of operati on s in

, , ,

hy p er n u mb er s t h e en t it ies themselves are under discus

,

si on a n d these can scarcely be left ou t of mathematic s .

The mere parallelism or is om orphism between the the ory

of pr ocesses and the o th er the orie s testifie s t o the s ub

s t a n t ia l unit y of mathematics but d oe s not all ow u s t o ,

 C HA PTE R IX
I N F E RE N C E S AN DTHE RE D U CTION OF M A THE M ATI C S
T O S YS T E M S OF L O G I C

The la s t great divisi on of dynamic mathematics is

that called the ory of infere n ces The speculative phi .

l os op h er w h o is endeav oring t o c onde n se all mathe

mati es int o a s ingle field and t o frame a single definiti on
f or it might h ope f or a m oment that in the the ory of ,

s ystems of inference or system s of reas on i n g in every

mann er p ossible he might find a s oluti on t o his pr oblem

,
.

Even th ough the static results of the the ory of cl asses and
relatives d o n ot c ontain all mathematics yet in the active ,

exerci s e of the think ing functi on of mind there might yet

be a chance t o enmesh the elusive Spirit of mathesis .

The the ory of inference w ould include all meth ods of

drawing conclusi ons Whether these depend up on the
.

law of c ontradicti on or up on m ore general laws in which

there is s o t o speak a first c on tradict ory a sec ond c on tra
, , ,

d ict ory etc or whether they f oll ow s ome ge n eralizati on

,
.

of the syll ogism or whatever the principles may be or the

,

way in which the succe s si on of data and c onsequences

—
are related all these c ome in the generalized the ory of
inferen ce M eth ods of analysis and synthesis of data
.
,

the symb olizati on of data the transf ormati ons permitted

, ,

the eliminati on of extrane ou s elements the statement of ,

conclusi ons — these are within the field of s tructure of

reas oning in general B ey ond these there are t o be con
.

s id ered the in v ariant s in m odificati ons of the pr ocesses or

the meth ods of deducti on These may be ob j ect ified int o

.

1 22
 I nf er ences a nd Sys tems of L ogic 1 23

laws of th ought or i n t o laws of mind or may be called

, ,

la w s of the universe but w hatever s ource they are as

,

c r ib e d t o their i n vestigati on bel on gs t o the field of active

,

reas on i ng There will further be functi onalities in reas on

.

ing which are the systems that depend up on o ther sys

,

tems and may be called fun cti ons of the latter F i nally .
,

the s oluti ons of ge n eral pr oblems in reas oning whether ,

in the inventi on or in the disc overy of systems of reas on

ing that will d o a particular ki n d of w ork or in the crea ,

ti on of m odes of reas oni ng that s o far the race has never

ev olved or in the erecti on of scie n tific t he ories will con
, ,

s t it u t e the inversi on s of the systems o f reas oni n g .

S aid Peirce : 2

M a thema t ics i s not the di scover e r of l a w s f or i t i s not in duc ,

t ion ; n ei ther i s i t th e f ra me r of th eories f or it i s not hy p othesis ; ,

but it i s the j udge ove r b oth a nd it i s th e a rbiter t o which ,

ea ch mus t r efe r i ts cl a i ms ; a nd neithe r l a w ca n rul e nor

theory exp l a i n wi thout the s a nct ion of M a th ema t ics .

Even t h e rul es of l ogi c by wh i ch i t i s rigid l y b ound coul d no t

, ,

b e deduced with out its a id In i ts p u re a n d s imp l e

form the syll ogi sm ca nnot b e directl y compa re d with a ll ex
p erience or i t woul d n ot h a v e r eq u ir e d a n A ri st otl e t o d i scover
,

it I t must b e t ra ns mut ed int o a l l t he p ossibl e Sha p es in

.

which rea son ing l oves to cl othe itsel f .

It would perhaps seem plausible th en that even if mathe

mati es cannot be defined by its deducti ons it might be ,

defined by its pr ocesses of deducting that is by the s y s , ,

tems of reas oning it furnishes .

B u t mathematics is bey on d these things and it s butter ,

fly flights ca nn o t be calculated as s o many traject ories in

a n intellectual space It is not under the rule of any .

mechanics h owever lax its laws or v ariegated its f or ces

, .

2
A mer . J our . M a th .
, 4 p .
97 .
1 24 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
Its wings may rest up on the air and it may rise because ,

of the sustai n i n g p ower of matter but its path n one can ,

predict a nd the fl owers it t ouches might never be ferti

,

l iz e d if it s c ourse had passed them b v S ays D uh em z .

2

The fa cul ty of foll owin g without fa i nti n g l ines of l ong a nd

complica ted r ea soning the most mi nute rul es of l ogi c is not
, , ,

how eve r the onl y on e tha t comes i n t o pl a y in t h e con s t ruct ion

,

of a l g ebr a ; a n othe r f a cul t y h a s a n e s s e n t i a l p a r t in thi s w ork ;

i t is tha t by whi ch t he ma thema t icia n in the pres ence of a very

complica t ed a l gebra i c expr essi on p er ceives ea s i l y the dive rs e
t ra nsforma t ions p e rmitted und e r the rul es of t h e ca l cul a t ion t o
whi ch he ca n subj ect it a nd thence a rri ve a t his d esired f ormu
l a e ; thi s fa cul t y q uite a n a l og ou s t o tha t of t h e che s s pl a ye r
,
-

w h o pr ep a r e s a brill ia nt st rok e i s n ot the p ow e r of r e a son i n g

, ,

but a n a p titud e f or combina t ion .

We have passed in revie w s o far the vari ou s parts of the

subject matter of mathematics and have f ou n d that
-

under n o one of them can the wh ole field be subsumed .

M athematical thi ngs are not all expressible in terms of

number or figure s or arrangements or classes and rela
, , ,

t iv es N either can everything he stated in terms of

.

operati on s h y p ern u mb ers pr o cesses or systems of reas on

, , ,

ing This is because these thi ngs are not onl y diverse
.

in es s ence th ou gh they have certain is om orphisms but

, ,

because als o mathematics c onsists of m ore than the enti

ties with which it has t o d o F or in stance it considers
.
,

certain aspects of these e n titi es I n th eir vari ous c ombi na

,

ti ons and tra n sformati ons In these aspects there are

.

certain d omi nant chara cters and it might be th ought that

,

ma t hematics ca n be defin ed by mea n s of the particular

characters in things in which it is interested These .

are the ce n tral principle s of mathematics and these we will ,

2
Revu e d es d eu x mond es 25 p . 662 .
 C HA PTE R X
F ORM A S A C N RAL P R N C PL E T I I E
We have examined the d omain of mathematics as t o
its subject matter findin g at present eight main divisi ons
-
,

int o which the things studied may be put F our of these .

were f ound t o be of a static type in which the object ,

studied w a s s o t o speak a given fix ed entity or collecti on

, ,

of entities .In the other four we f ound a dynamic charac

ter the thing studied bein g tra n siti on s rather than states
, .

We f ound that n o one of the eight was suffi ciently compre

h en s iv e t o include the o ther s and s o t o bec ome the ,

d omin an t divisi on and thus fur n ish a definiti on f or all

mathematics We now have t o take cr oss secti ons as it
.
-
,

were thr ough these eight di visi ons al on g the lin es of cer
, ,

tain ce n tral principles that permeate all of the eight and ,

which we might think at first w ould enable u s t o define

mathematics by it s chief character sin ce we cann ot d o it ,

by it s part s S uch attempts have been made We will

. .

c onsider the central principles t o be f our :f orm inva ri ,

ance functi onality inversion The first of these has been

, ,
.

suggested as a defining character of mathematics In his .

presiden tial address bef ore the British A ss ociation in 1 9 1 0

H obs on says : Perhaps the least inadequate descripti on
2 “

of the ge n eral sc ope of m odern Pure M a t hematics

— I will
n o t call it a d efin it ion— w ould be t o s a y that it deals with
‘

f orm in a very general sense of the term ; this w ould

,

include algebraic f orm functi onal relati onship the rela

, ,

ti ons of order in any ordered s et of entitie s such as ,

2
N a ture, 8 4 p . 28 7.
 Form as a C e ntra l Princip l e 1 27

numbers and the analysis of the peculiarities of f orm of

,
”
gr oups of operati ons .

This n o ti on was advanced in a series of mem oirs by

Kempe He says : .
2
the c onvicti on must i n evi
tably f orce itself up on us that in c on sideri ng the mathe ,

m a t ica l pr operties of a ny subject matter we are merely -

,

studyi ng its f orm a n d that its other characteristics

‘
,
’
,

except as a mea n s of putti n g that f orm in evidence are , ,

”
mathematically speaking wh olly irrelevant ,
.

We meet here a very attractive defini ng character of

mathematics which at first might seem suffi ciently t o
,

distinguish mathematics M any of the peculiarities we .

have al ready n oticed bec ome intelligible fr om this p oint

of view If mathematics studies on ly f orm then the
.
,

n on material character of its objects and their essentially

-

mental th ough n ot subjective character become obvi ous

, ,
.

F orm is invisible and intangible a c onstructi on of the ,

min d yet permanent and not depende n t up on the peculi

,

a r it ies of the mind of any on e pers on The f orm of a .

buildin g 1s realized in st one but the f orm existed in ,

the architect s m ind bef ore the st one was even quarried
’

perhaps The f orm of a symph ony is in the musician s

.
’

mind as much as in the a ctual perf ormance If we .

examine the eight divisi ons of mathematics we will ,

fin d f orm as an essential character in every on e .

Early in the study of numbers questi on s of f orm were

investigated The Pythag oreans placed objects in square
.

“
arrays and studied the square numbers They f ound .

that t w o squares put t ogether pr operly might give a

square They studied the numbers of objects arranged
.

“ ”
in equ ilateral triangles tria ngular numbers and other , ,

2
P r oc Lond . . M a th S oc
. .
,
26 p . 13 ; N a ture, 4 3
pp . 1 5 6 —162 .
1 28 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
f orms C oming up t o m odern t imes we fin d numbers
.
,

studied a s t o their partiti ons and their fact ors The t w o .

n oti ons are c ombined in the study of perfect and amicable

numbers of which the Greeks knew s ome t hing A perfect
,
.

number is one which has t he f a ct ors of the number a s the

'

eleme n ts of one of it s partiti ons F or example 6 2 8 4 9 6 .

, , , ,

8 1 2 8 33 5 5 0 3 3 6 8 5 8 9 8 6 9 0 5 6 1 3 7 4 3 8 6 9 1 3 2 8 are perfect
, , , ,

numbers In case the fa ct ors of each of t w o numbers

.

are respectively the elements of a partiti on of the other

, , ,

the numbers are amicable such as 2 2 0 and 2 8 4 1 7 2 9 6 , ,

and 1 8 4 1 6 93 6 3 5 8 4 and 9 43 7 0 5 6 The fact orizati on of

,
.

numbers of a ny size admits still only tentative me t h ods of

s oluti on The enumerati on of the partiti ons of a number
.

h a s been s olved in a certain way which h owever is , , ,

scarcely practicable of c omputati on f or large numbers .

The unsuspected f orms int o which numbers may be cast ,

thereby permitting their applicati on t o the s oluti on of

various types of pr oblem are usually arrived at in the ,

c ourse of an other piece of w ork A systematic treatment .

of the cases d oes n ot exist The determinati on of the .

coefli cien t s of vari ous types of expansi on is an o ther large

pr oblem in the c onsiderati on of numbers The exp a n .

si ons may be in Tayl or series or in other rati onal ,

p olyn omial expansi ons or in rati onal functi ons or may, ,

be in terms of given infinite sets of or th og onal functi ons .

Interp olati on the orems the f ormati on of various diff er ,

e nc es and the cal culu s of finite d iff erence s bel ong

,

here als o .

In the the ory of general range s the f orm of the range

is of vital imp ortance ; the discrete range with n o limit
p oint s the ra nges with l imit p oints dense ranges perfect
, , ,

ranges the linear c ontinuum the f uncti onal ranges of

, ,

Hilbert F réchet and other s all ha v e f orm s which

,
—
,
1 30 Philos op hy of Ma thema ti cs
th at all of ge ometry is merely a s tudy of f orm They are .

c ombined with numerical elements int o f orms that bel ong

t o b oth the fir s t and second divisi on s such a s the mass ,

p oint the glissant segment ( a segment of given le ngth

,

that can S lide up on a line) a v ect or a glissant vect or , , ,

a scale (p orti on of a pla n e which can slide in the plane ) ,

glissant cycle (p orti on of a face which can slide in th e

face) fixed s egment fix ed vect or r otat ory scale (scale
, , ,

with one fix ed p oint ) r otat ory cycle ( cycle with one fix ed

,

p oint) Shear scale (scale with a fi x ed line ) Shear cycle

, ,

( cycle with a fix ed straight line ) translat ory scale ( scale

,

with a fixed line and fix ed shape ) translat ory cycle etc , ,

.

The m odes of c ombinati on of these diff erent f orms furnish

vari ou s f orms of ge ometric calculi one of the simplest ,

of which is Gr a s s ma nn s A usdehnungslehre or science

’
,

of space The m ore m odern have been intimately con

.

n ec t e d with statics .

The third division of mathematics is concerned wi th

the arran gement of elements which may or may not be
alike that is is om orphic f or the arrangement This was
, ,
.

call ed by C ayley tactic by C ournot syn tactic It is

, , ,
.

n ot t h e same as a study of f orm F orm is c oncerned .

,

n ot with the arra n gement but with pr operties of the

,

arrangement If we put t ogether ge ometric elements we

.
,

have an arrangement while the c onsiderati on of the prop

,

er t ies of the arrangement is a study of f orm If we arrange .

number s in magic squares these are arrangements ; the

,

study of magic squares is a s tudy of f orm The the ory .

of arrange ments c onsiders the p ossibility of the arrange

ment the c onditi ons under which it can exist it s rela

, ,

ti ons t o is om orphic arrangement s and t o arrangements it

is a functi on of s oluti on s of pr oblems demanding arra nge
,

ments that f ulfil gi v en conditi on s The f orm of the .

 Form as a C e n tr a l Princip l e 1 3 1

arrangement is only one part of its study The study of .

f orms of this ki n d is often considered t o be merely an

amusement but f or the mathematician it is a play that
,

stimulates the creative imaginati on and awakens the

creative p ower thus bri nging ab out new creatures of
,

mathematics often useful in the m ost rem ote regi ons .

In the f ourth divisi on of mathematics which is con ,

cer n ed with the c omparis on and stu d y of concepts and

relati ons in general we are obliged als o t o s t udy f orm
,
.

This is at once evide n t w hen we remember the vari ou s

typ es of l ogical diagrams that have been used t o assist
the l ogician I n deed there is a p ossibility of re d ucing the
.

statements of l ogic of classes and pr op ositi ons t o the

c on siderati on of the order of p oints and other ge ometric
f orms An elab orati on of the meth od is given by Kempe
. .
2

The c onclusi ons of Kempe are very well w orth n oting ,

f or they themselves Sh ow that it is n ot p os s ible t o reduce

all mathematics to the study of f orm al one They are .

a s f oll ows

Wha teve r ma y b e the t rue na tu r e of thin g s a nd of t h e con

cep t ion s w hi ch w e ha ve of the m ( in t o w hich p oin ts w e a r e n o t

her e conce rned t o in q ui r e) in the op e ra ti ons of exa ct thought

,

they a re d ea l t with a s a numb e r of sep a ra te ent i ti es .

Eve ry e n t i t y i s di st i n gu i she d f rom ce rt a i n en t i t i es a nd ,

(u nl ess un i q ue) i s u ndi st in guishe d f r om othe r s In l ike .

ma nn e r eve ry col l ect i on of ent i t i es i s di sti ng ui she d f rom ce r t a i n

col l ect ions of ent it i es a nd (u nl ess un i q ue) i s u ndi st ingui shed
,

f rom others ; a nd every a sp ect of a coll ection of enti ti es i s

distingui shed from certa in a sp ects of coll ect ions a nd (unl ess
u ni q u e) i s u ndi st i ng ui sh ed f r om othe r s .

Eve ry sy st em of e nt i t i es h a s a d efin i te f orm d ue ( 1 ) t o

t he nu mb e r of i ts c omp onent e nt i t i e s a nd ( 2 ) t o the w a y in
2
K mp
e e, P r oc Lond M a th S oc 21 p 1 47 ; N a tur e, 43
p 6
. . . . .

. 2 2 .
132 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
whi h the di st i g i shed d u di ti gui hed e titi e l l e ti s
c n u an n s n s n s , co c on

of e t i t i es
n d p e ts f c l l ecti s f e titie
,
an as di t ributed
c o o on o n s a re s

thr u gh t h sy tem
o e s .

T h p culi ri t i es
e e d pr p e r t i s f
a system f e t it i es
an o e o a o n

d p d
e en f
s so
'
the pr cesses f ex ct th ugh t
ar a s c e r ed o o a o a re on c n ,

up the p rt i c l r f rm i t ssumes d
on a u a i d ep e d e t f
“
o
”
a ,
an a re n n n o

an ythi g l se
n e .

I t m y seem i s me c ses th t the r c sid e r t i s

a n o a a o on a on a re

i v l ved b esid e f rm ; but it will b e f u d i ve tig ti

n o s
“
o
”
o n on n s a on

th t the int r duct i

a f such c sid e r ti
o s i v l ves l the
on o on a on n o a so

i t r ducti f f resh e t ities d the we h ve t c sider the

n o on o n ,
an n a o on
“
f rm f the e l rged system
o
”
o n a .

Animp ortant element of the subject matter of exa ct -

th ought is no d oub t p ointed ou t here but there are cer ,

t a inl y o ther elements that are studied in mathematics .

U nless we u s e the term f orm in such an extended sense

“ ”

that it c omes t o c over by definition everythin g in mathe

ma t ica l investigati on we can scarcely include under it ,

such characteristics as th ose of functi onality invariance , ,

and inversion When we devise a new syste m of algebraic

.

numbers or whenever we add t o the e x isti ng entities

, ,

th ose o thers referred t o in the last of the paragraphs

qu oted ab ove the additi on of such entities is within the
,

d omain of mathematics and must be acc ounted f or .

The the ory in questi on fails utterly t o say m ore than that
th ey are intr oduced A cc ording t o the View advan ced .

in the present treat ment they are usually direct creati ons ,

of the mind and mathematics f or the m ost part is the

,

result of the study of such direct creati ons F urther .

,

the functi onality relati onships that are added t o previ ous
entities are s ometimes of m ore imp ortance than the enti
ties themselves and it is the functi onality that is studied
,

and not the f or m of the entities plus the functi onality .

The same may be said of invariance .

1 34 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
enabled the ge ometer t o simplify his pr oblems by their
adjuncti on the intr oducti on of the n ew eleme n ts maki n g
,

it p ossible t o restate the ge ometric pr oblem We might .

add that the wh ole of mathematics c onsists in adj oining

t o the data of exp erience th ose elements that human
.

th ought has created in order t o simplify the pr oblems of

the data of experience .

The third divisi on of dynami c mathematics is that of

pr ocesses The Simplest pr ocesses are th ose that pass
.

fr om a s et of objects on a single range t o a s e t on a single

ran ge Thus the pr ocess of diff ere n tiati on passes fr om a
.

s et of c ontinu ous fu n c ti ons t o a s e t of fu n cti ons p ossibly

als o c ontinu ous The pr ocess of exp ansi on in fu nda

.

mental fu n cti on s passes fr om a Single range of functi on s t o

a range of series wh ose c oeffi cients are t o be determined .

The pr ocess of variati on of an ordinary functi on may be

viewed as a pr ocess fr om a range which h a s infinite ma n i
f ol d nes s t o a ra n ge with i nfinite manif oldness Every.

fu n cti on may be l ooked up on as a m ode of transiti on fr om

a ran ge or s e t of ranges t o a range or set of ranges And .

every tran smutati on of a fu n cti on int o an other may b e

viewed as a transiti on fr om one m ode of transiti on t o
an other m ode of transiti on .

The last divisi on of dynamic mathematics is that of

systems of inference The f orm of a demonstrati on the
.
,

structure of a pr oof w ould see m alm ost t o be the vital

‘
,

part of the reas oni n g If we describe the manner of

.

buildi ng a dem onstrati on what m ore is there t o s a y "

,

H owever a little reflecti on will Sh ow that these vari ous

,

structur es whether of number or of inference are only

, ,

on e of the characters that mathematics c onsiders B esides

.

these it takes int o acc oun t th ose features that are inv a ri
ant under a change of f orm These we will c onsider in .
 Form as a C e ntra l Pr incip l e 135

so me detail in t he next chapter It is en ough t o n otice .

here that there are such invariants F urther a large .

,

part of mathematics is c on cerned with the c orresp on dences

that exist bet w een structures and w hich are called fu n c
ti on s The wh ole the ory of functi onality is c oncern ed
.

n ot particularly or directly with structure of the entities

but with the pr operties of the functi onal c orresp on dence .

F inally m ost mathematical investigati on leads rather

,

abruptly t o the s oluti on of certain questi on s calling f or

the e x istence mathematically of entities with assigned
pr operties This is the the ory of equati ons or m ore
.
,

gen erally of inversi ons Questi on s of structure or f orm

,
.

are not the pr ominent thing in these .

It seems evident en ough theref ore that mathematics

, ,

cann o t be reduced t o pr op ositi ons ab out f orm al one at ,

least unless we include under f orm other characteristics

than th ose that relate t o structure al one An d we sh ould .

n ot strain the mea n ing of a ter m in order t o make it

a vailable f or a definiti on F or m is a definite term t o apply

.

t o one of the characters with which mathematics is con

cerned and we will restrict it t o that u s e
, .

RE FERE NCE
K em p e The ry
,
o of M them t i c l F rms
a a a o ,
P hil . Tr a ns Roy
. .

S oc L on d
. . P rt I pp
a
—
,7 . 1 0 .
 C HA PTE R XI
THE ORY OF IN VA R AN I TS
The pri n ciple of invarian ce has als o been c onsidered
t o be the essence of mathe matics I n h is presidential
.

address bef ore the British A ss ociati on in 1 9 0 1 M a cM a h on 2

said : It is th e idea of in varian ce that pervades t oday

“

all branches of mathematics A n d F or s y th e in his

” 2
.

presidential address in 1 8 9 7 said

T he theory of i nva ria nts ha s i nva d ed the doma in of g eom
et ry a n d h a s a l mos t re c r ea te d t h e a n a l yt i ca l th e ory ; b ut i t
,
-

ha s don e mor e tha n thi s f or the i nve s t ig a t ion s of C a yl ey h a ve

,

re q uired a full reconsidera tion of the ve ry foun da tion s of

geomet ry It ha s exe rci sed a profound in fluence upon the
.

theory of a l g ebra i c e q ua t i on s ; i t ha s ma d e i ts w a y into the

theory of di ffe rent ia l e q ua t ion s ; a nd t h e g ene ra liz a t ion of i ts
idea s is op en ing ou t new r egion s of most a dva nced a nd p ro
foun d functiona l a n a l ysi s And so f a r f rom i ts cou rse b e ing
.

compl eted i ts q uest i on s ful l y a nswe re d or i ts i nter es t ext inct

, , ,

the re i s no r ea son t o suppose tha t a te rm ca n b e a ssigne d t o i ts

growth a nd its in fluence .

In his C ontinu ierl iche Grupp en edited by S ch eff er s , ,

Lie says (p “
.In recent times the v iew bec omes m ore
and more prevalent that many branches of mathematics
”
are n othing but the the ory of invariants of special gr oups .

We need th eref ore t o examine this idea in detail t o a s cer

tain its precise d omain .

In t he t h eory of ranges we find a large part of number

'

the ory is dev oted t o the stu dy of quadratic f orms and ,

2
N a ture, 64 p .
48 1 .
2
N a ture, 5 6 p . 2 79 .
1 38 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
The the ory of is om orphism in arrangements can be placed
pr operly here a s well as pr oblems of transiti vi ty The .

wh ole of this branch is t oo u n devel oped t o e x pect much

kn owledge of the invariant characters it may have .

The l ogic of classes relatives a n d pr op ositi onal , ,

functi ons in general p ossesses few invariants that hav e

been systematically devel oped The rules of the calculus .

c on stitute ab out the only l ogi cal inv arian ts kn own s o far ,

alth ough recent investigati ons are drifting this way .

Wh en we come t o the field of operat ors we fin d a rich ,

harvest of invariants I t is s ufli cien t merely t o menti on .

pr ojective ge ometry with regard t o which S tein er said : ,

2

By a pr oper appr opriati on of a few fu n dame n tal relati ons

on e bec omes master of the wh ole subject ; order takes the

place of cha os on e beh olds h ow all the parts fit naturally

,

int o each o ther and arrange themselves serially in the

most beautiful order and h ow related parts c ombine int o ,

well d efin ed gr oups In this manner one arrives as it

-
.
,

were at the elemen ts which nature herself empl oys in

, ,

order t o end ow figures with numberless pr operties with

the utm ost economy a n d simplicity ”

We n otice g eo .

metric tran sf ormati ons in ge n eral of which Lie said ,

2

“
In our century the c oncepti on s of substituti ons and
s ubstituti on gr oup tran sf or mati on a n d transf ormati on
,

gr oup operati on and operati on gr oup i nvariant diff er

, , ,

en t ia l invariant diff erential parameter appear more a n d

, ,

m ore clearly a s the m ost imp ortant c oncepti ons of mathe

matics ”
We must n ot leave ou t analysis situs the study
.
,

of c ontinu ous on e t o on e tra n sf ormati ons -

such trans -
,

f or mati on s a s can happen t o a rubber surface or t o a

battered tin can This is the m ost fundamental of all the
.

2
Works ,
1 p . 23 3 .

2
L eip B er . .
, 47 p . 261 .
 The ory of I nva r ia nts 1 39

branches of ge ometry its the orems remain true under

,

the m ost tryin g c on diti ons of def ormati on they c ome the ,

nearest t o represe n ti ng the necessities in an infi n ite

evanescence that a ny the ory can furnish If we were .

t o add t o it a new a n alysis situs of an infi nitely disc on

t inu ou s character we might h ope that s ome day we c ould
,

furnish certain laws of the n atural w orld that w ould h old

u n der the m ost cha otic transf ormati ons If we increa s e .

this already treme n d ous list with the grand the ories of
diff ere n tial and integral invarian ts we can alm ost feel ,

o urselves the masters of the fl owi n g universe We find .

o urselves able t o s e e the changeless in that which is s maller

th a n the ultra micr osc opic a n d als o t o ride on the per

-

manent and i n destructible filamen ts of whirling sm oke

wreaths thr ough out their c ourses t o i nfi n ity Wars may .

c ome and g o man may dream and achieve ma y aspire

, ,

and struggle the ae on s of ge ol ogy and of celestial systems

,

may p onder ously g o their way electr ons and dizzy ,

cycles of Spinnin g mag n et ons or the intricate web of ether,

“
filaments may w rite in the twinkling of an eye di ff er en
”
tial equati ons that w ould belt the gl obe yet under all ,
2
,

a n d in all the i n variants of the mathematician persist

, ,

fr om the begin ni ng even u n t o the end .

In the bran ch of hy p ern umb er s the list of invariants is

n o t exte n sive as yet The aut om orphisms of an algebra
.
,

h ow ever are necessary f or the in vestigati on s of its s tr u c

,

ture and of its applicati ons The invariant equati ons of .

a n algebra define it and als o Sh ow t o what things it s

numbers bel on g naturally This field will be come a s large

.

in time as that of algebraic inva r iants is n ow .

The invaria n t the ory of the branch we called pr ocesses

is n ot t ouched N or is the invariant the ory of schemes
.

2
He r s ch el ,
F a mil ia r L ectu r es on S cien tific S u bj ects , p .
45 8 .
 1 40 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of inference yet inv e s tigated When it is de v el oped we
.
,

ma y really talk ab out laws of th ought .

Just a s in the principle of f orm we are studyin g chiefly

th e syn thetic character of mathematics s o in the prin ,

cip l e of invariance we are studying the permanent char

ac ter of math emati cal con structi ons I t s results are

.

everlastin g and we hav e in them a gr owin g m onument

,

t o the hum an intellect Bu t we cann o t aff ord t o c on fuse

.

the determination of invariants in mathematical con

s t ru c t ion s with the wh ole of mathematics and with the

permanent character of mathematical the orems In other .

w ords th e the orems of mathematics are the invariant s

,

of the field of mathemati cal investigati on Among .

these are the orem s regarding the invariants of s ome of the

objects of investigati on u n der transf or mati on M athe .

matie s c on tains many the orems which are invariants of

th ought but are n ot the orem s ab out invariants of mathe
,

ma t ica l objects The fact that every mathematician

.

c omes t o the same c onclusi on with regard t o the same

subject of investigati on Sh ows th e invariant chara cter of
t h e intelle c t The s ubject of investigati on itself h owever
.
, ,

need n ot be a s tudy as t o invariancy but anything in

,

the real m of mathematic s F or i n stance pr oblems as t o

.
,

the the ory of functi ons ma y not deal wi th invariants at

all O f c ourse t his is the same a s saying that the ques
.

ti ons of th e mathematician are n ot always questi on s as t o

the perman ency of s ome thing but ma y be questi ons a s t o
,

s ynthetic constru c ti on a s t o c orresp on den ce or questi ons

, ,

a s t o the s oluti on of equati ons of v ari o us types .

The the ory of invariant s is evidently one of the central

pri n ciple s of mathematics yet mathematics cann o t be
,

reduced to mere pr oblems of invariance The invariants .

of ma th ematical obje c t s s erv e t o characteriz e them but ,

 C HA PTE R XII
M ATHE M ATI CS A S T HE THE ORY OF F UN C TION S
In his lectures on the devel opment of analysis at
,

C lark U niversity Picard says : ,

T he whol e sci ence of ma thema t i cs rests upon the notion of

function tha t i s t o sa y of d ependen ce b etween t w o or more
, ,

ma g nitud es whose stu dy con st i tutes the pri n cip a l obj ect of
,

a na l y s i s . I t w a s a l ong t i me b efore a ccou nt w a s ta ken of

t h e ex t ra ordi na ry ex t en t of thi s n ot i on a cir cums t a n ce wh i ch
,

w a s ve ry ha ppy f or t h e pr ogr ess of the s ci en ce If N ewton .

a nd L e ib n iz h a d thou gh t tha t con t i nu ous function s need

n ot h a ve d e ri va t ives whi ch is in g en er a l t h e ca s e t h e diff e r e nt i a l
, ,

ca l cul u s w oul d n ot ha ve b een b o r n lik e wi s e the i n ex a ct id ea s

, ,

of L a gr a n g e u pon the p os s ibili t y of d evel op me nt s in Ta yl or s

’

s e ri es r en d er e d i mmen s e se rvi ce .

Wh en we l ook over the ra nge of m odern a n alysis or

the differential and i n tegral calculus with all its a p p l i ,

cati on s includin g the functi on s oi c omplex a n d other

,

variables we may at first c onsider that it w ould be safe

,

t o define mathematics as the wh ole the ory of functi on s

in gen eral We Shall i n spect the field h owever a little
.
, ,

more cl osely rememberin g that in order t o cla s sify

, ,

any branch of mathematics under the the ory of functi ons ,

it must deal with the idea of dependence or c orresp ondence .

We meet in the the ory of ge n eral ran ges first of all , ,

functi on s that are determined by the assignmen t of a

fi n ite number of numerical values These are of little .

i n terest in the present discussi on Then c ome functi ons .

that run over a denumerably infinite range of value s .

1 42
 Ma thema tics as Theory of Fu ncti ons 1 43

F ll wing these we have the the ry

o o ,
fu n cti ons of a real o of

variable over a ny ran ge usually a p oi n t set This ,

-
.

includes of c ourse arithmetic and algebraic fu n cti on s

, , ,

but it als o takes in functi on s in which the depe nden ce of

the on e variable on the other is determin ed in a ny manner .

If the range admits of the n oti on of c ontin uity or disc on

t in u ity we i n clude b o th classes
,
The ordin ary infinit es i .

mal calculus s o far as it deals with on e i n depe n de n t

,

variable enters here The meth od of defi n iti on is n ot

,
.

material whether by expressi on as series or expan si ons

,

of vari ous types or by definite i n tegrals or by lim its or by

, , ,

artificial laws It is by mea n s of the the ory of functi ons

.

of real variables that we have reached the p oi n t fr om

which ou r perspective is c orrected and we can s ee m ost ,

easily perhaps that mathematics is n ot dependent wh olly

up on i n tuiti on in the usual sense F or the study of .

functi on s of a real variable h a s pr oduced the c on tinu ous

fun cti on that has no derivative which we cann ot study ,

intuitively at all ; the functi on which c orrelates the

p oints of a square t o the p oints on a line ; the curves that
fill space full ; and has indeed s o m od ified the c oncepti on
, ,

of what it is that we study in ge ometry that we alm ost ,

assert that whatever it is it surely is not space The

, ,
.

the ory has als o pr oduced the means of exhibiti n g in

calculable f orm vari ous e x pressi on s f or what are called
arbitrary functi on s The origin al n oti on of functi on
.

meant of c ourse little m ore than a single law by mean s

, ,

of which the values c ould be f ou n d A sin gle law mea n t .

a single expressi on and m ore than a Single law mean t m ore

,

than on e expression B u t we passed that stage a ce n tury

.

a g o and can n ow represent a functi on which is given by

a great number of laws als o by a single expressi on We , .

must als o include here the study of functi ons over ranges
1 44 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
that are n ot representable as p oin t sets with the cons e -
,

que n t chan ges of idea as t o c ontin uity etc This is ,

.

o ne part of ge n eral analysis The in ve n ti on of general

.

ran ges is due t o the dema n d s of function al analysis a s ,

general analysis is due t o th e incr ea s ing wealth of functi ons

'
'

and the necessity of classifying them and discovering

their essential pr operties .

In the regi on of vect ors or ge ometry or manif olds we

, , ,

have the wh ole the ory of many real variables In partial .

derivatives and multiple integrals the calculus appears ,

the field of applicati on bec omes an en orm ous one It .

includes als o what may be termed v ect or fiel d s of all -

the kn own types We are herein beginnin g t o appr oach

.

me chanics and physics If the vector fiel d s are fields

.
-

of f orce or vel o city or ac celerati on we are in the regi on

, , ,

of mechanics or electr odynamic s If they are fields of .

s tress and strain we are in the regi on of elasticity

,
If .

they are v el ocity fields arid fields of def ormati on we ,

are in what is called hydr odyn amics F urther we must .

,

include here an inventi on of the twentieth century

fun cti ons of lines surfaces hyp ersurfaces hy p erfigures in
, , ,

general and functi ons of functi ons indeed the wh ole of

, ,

modern functi on al analysis We s ee at once that any .

kind of dependence that ca n be determined by the depend

ence of number s on numbers ca n be caught in this mighty
machine a n d ha n dled with perfect ease The chief aim .

of the m ore exact sciences is t o arrive at the stateme n t of

laws in just this way F or our purp oses h owever we must

.
, ,

n otice that in the devel opment of these general subjects

many new c oncepts and even new mathematical meth ods
have had t o be devised We must include als o diff er
.
, ,

e n t ia l ge ometry at least s o much as d oes n o t have t o d o

,

with gr oup s We may it is true put many other devel op

.
, ,
 1 46 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
When we c onsider the functions of hy p ernumb ers we ,

meet at once a branch of mathematics which overshad ows

many of the others we have named the fun cti on s of a ,

c omplex variable It was b orn when C auchy disc overed

.

the in tegral the orem

m um

published in 1 8 2 5 O n this integral the orem he founded

.

that meth od of studying these functi ons which bears his

name R iemann f oun ded the the ory later up on d if fer
.

en t ia l meth ods and ge ometric i n tuiti on ; and Weierstrass

, ,

up on the meth od of i n fin ite expansi on s ; but the three

have been combin ed int o one magn ificent and symmetric
the ory It p ossesses a c ompleteness that th e the ory of
.

real variables d oes not inasmuch as a functi on that is ,

defined f or any c ontin u ous s et of p oin ts can be defi n ed ,

that is expressed wherever it exists pr ovided it is

, , ,

analytic S ince the real axis is part of the complex plane

.
,

many of the the orem s can be made t o apply t o the theory

of real variables .

The fu ncti ons of quaterni on s a n d other hy p ernumb ers

ha ve n ot been very much studied as such alth ough much ,

of the w ork on functi on s of many variable s ca n be inter

p r e t ed as applying here except t hat the character of the

,

hy p ernumb er is not in that case apparently presen t .

F unctions of operation al fields and gen eral function

the ory bel ong here als o F un cti ons of pr ocesses have n ot
.

been devel oped n or fun cti on s of deducti on

,
.

We s ee easily fr om the preceding rapid survey of the

territ ory of the ory of functions that while it is very large ,

a n d imp ortant it d oes n ot include the regi ons of the the ory
,

of f orm or invarian ce In on ly a small degree ma y these

.

be considered t o treat of functi onality F un c tionality is .

 Ma thema tics as The ory of Fu ncti ons 1 47

simply one of the great central pri n ciples of mathematics .

B u t the ev oluti on of the n oti on of functi o n fr om the

small beginnings in which only the integral p owers of
numbers were the functi on s handled up thr ough all the ,

devel opments int o algebraic functi ons transcendental ,

fu ncti on s functi ons of m any variables t o the m odern

, ,

idea that one figure is a functi on of an other that a class ,

of fu n cti ons may be a functi on of an other class is a very

instructive study of the evoluti on of mathematics fr om

simple n oti ons of little c omplexity or subtlety up t o n oti ons
that are not only very delicate in their distincti ons but ,

quite i n tricate in their inner structure In the c ourse of .

such devel opment have arisen the n otions of c ontinuity ,

disc ontinuity unif ormity relative unif ormity cl osure

, , , ,

linearity distributivity d ominance derivability and

, , , ,

numer ous others every on e of which is the result of the

creative elab orati on of the relati on s v isible or c onceivable
in the s ub ject matter -
.

RE FERE NCE S
Pi ca rd,
L es ma th é ma t i q ues d a n s s es r a pp or ts a vec l a phy
s i q ue P roc I n t C ongr es s a t Rome
. .

On the D evel op men t of M a thema t i ca l Ana l ys i s a nd

I ts Rel a tion s t o S ome Othe r S ci ences Bul l A mer M a th ,
”
. . .

S oc .
,
1 1 pp .
404 4 2 6
— .

M oor e Genera l A n a l y s is
, .
 C HA PTE R XIII
THE O RY OF E QUATION S
O ne the chief s ources of mathematical advance is
of

the c onsiderati on of pr oblems We d o not s a y the s ol u

.

ti on of pr oblems f or frequently the pr oblems are n ot

,

s olved indeed may no t be s olvable yet in their con s id

, , ,

er a t ion the mathematician has been led t o invent new

meth od s new concepts new branches of mathematics

, ,
.

O ne of the s ources of pr oblems fr om which flows a gr ow ,

ing stream as kn ow ledge pr ogresses is natural science ,

.

We need only remember the fam ous pr oblem of three

b odies and the attendant series of mem oirs on mathe
mati es which has been its outc ome The equati ons of .

mathematical physics have suggested many widely

diverse branches of mathematics Pr oblems in ge ometry .

suggest the orems in arithmetic and pr oblems in arith ,

metic have suggested ge ometrical advance B u t by far .

the largest number of pr oblems emanate fr om the mind

itself in its study of mathematics The in venti ons of the .

mathematician bring a c onstantly gr owin g number of

pr oblems which in turn suggest a still wider field of
“
i nvestigati on S ays Hilbert
. If we d o n ot succeed in
:2

s olvin g a mathematical pr oblem the reas on frequently ,

c onsists in our failure t o rec ognize the m ore general

standp oi n t fr om which the pr oble m bef ore us appears
as a single link in a chain of related pr oblems After .

finding this standp oint not only is this pr oblem f re

,

quently m ore accessible t o ou r investigati on but at the ,

2
Bull A mer
. . M a th . S oc
. 8 p .
443 .

1 48
1 50 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
independent variable Hyperb oli c functi ons elliptic func
.
,

ti ons hyperel iptic functi ons Abelian functi ons these

l —
, ,

were invented as well as h osts of o thers in order t o com

, ,

p l e t e the s oluti on of the di f fere n tial equati

'
ons that ar o se
in the c ourse of t h e w ork Of the mathematician They .

in turn br ought up the question of a functi onal d omain

of integrity ,
that is a study of the c onditi ons under
,

which such diff erential equati ons c ould be s olved in terms

of given functi ons as f or example when a diff erential
, , ,

equati on can be s olved in terms of algebraic functi on s ,

circular functi ons elliptic functi ons etc This is the

, ,
.

Picard V es s iot the ory similar t o the Gal ois the ory of
-
,

equati ons and dependent up on the gr oups of the dif fer

en t ia l equati ons The creati on of new functi on s which are
.

derived not fr om experience but fr om their pr operties is, ,

a s ufli cien t phe nomen on In itself t o pr ove the aut on omy

o f mathematics and its self determinati on -
F urther we .
,

find in the recent devel opments of diff erence equation s -

an openin g of the n ew field which will lead t o further

i n ven tions .

The the o ry of dif feren tial equation s of several ind ep end

ent variables is resp onsible f or the inventi on of spherical
harm onics ellips oidal harm onics harm on ics in general
, , ,

and a wide variety of u nnamed fun cti ons We als o have .

the en orm ous list of s oluti on s of equati ons with t otal

d iff erentials which lead t o functi ons that are not easily
,

representable in the ord inary way The greater part of .

mathematical physics lies in this regi on since mathe ,

ma t ica l l y it is merely a c onsiderati on of the s oluti ons of

d iff erential equati ons The inventi on of the Green s
.
’

fun cti ons alone and the expa n si on of this n oti on t o c ov er

a large class of functi ons of several variables which are ,

defined by diff erential equati ons with given b oundary

 The ory of Equ a ti ons 1 5 1

co nditi on s is an other bra n ch of mathematics quite

,

capable of dem onstratin g the fertility of the m i nd .

We need not s t op t o c on sider the s oluti ons of pr oblems

of c onstructi on or pr oblems of l ogic They have their
.

place and what small syn thetic character l ogistic has lies
, ,

in its few contributi on s in this directi on We find in .

the f orms of at oms m ole cules and mul t imol e c ul es ideals

, ,

of mathematical chemistry .

I n the the ory of operat ors we have the inventi on of

the aut om orphic functi ons as the functi on s which are
s oluti on s of certain equati ons of operat ors particularly ,

operat ors that f orm gr oups The peri odic functi ons
.
,

the d oubly peri odic functi ons and others have extended
,

ma thematics very far The study of integral equati ons

.
,

which is properly the study of functions that satisfy

certain operati onal equati ons of a linear character or t o a ,

small degree non li near character has intr oduced not

-
, ,

only n ew meth ods and new s oluti ons but a new p oint of
,

View f or the treatment of a wide range of mathematics

.

It enables us t o define orth og on al functi ons in general

and suggests other fun cti on s than the orth og onal which ,

remain f or the future t o study C l osely f oll owin g it is the

.

the ory of functi onal equati ons in ge n eral in which we ,

undertake t o find functi ons a s the s oluti on of certain

fun cti onal equati ons This includes the the ory of opera
.

ti ons and leads up t o a the ory we may call fun cti onal
analysis The calculus of variati ons bel ongs here on e of
.
,

the oldest branches of mathematics of this type M a ny .

pr oblems in physics may be stated as pr oblems in the

calculus of variati ons indeed this meth od of statement
, ,

seem s t o be the m ost unifyi ng we have t oday The .

determin ati on of the s oluti ons of variati onal questi on s is

on e of the imp ortant divisi ons of functi onal analysis .
1 5 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
The s oluti ons of pr oblem s ari s ing in a similar way
fr om the functi ons of c omplex variables are intimately
c onnected with the precedin g f orms and usually little ,

distincti on would be made between them H owe ver .

,

the pr oblems involving functi on s of several complex

variables have peculiarities that must be taken int o
acc ount The pr oblems arising in the c onsiderati on of
.

functi ons of quaterni ons have yet t o be investigated and , ,

when they have been studied in full they wi l l no d oub t ,

lead t o many new ideas .

Pr oblems in games such a s the e n din gs in chess are s o

far only amusements and pr oblems in the s oluti ons of
,

questi on s of deducti ons are purely in a ten tative state

'

When mathematics has devised meth ods of pr oducing t he

the ories of scientific elementary ideals the pr ogress of ,

science will be rapid An d these s oluti ons will c ome in

.

time f or all science is appr oximating a mathematical

,

statemen t The meth ods of science and th ose of math e

.

mati es are practically the same and this iden tity will be ,

revealed m ore plainly as the advances of mathematics

enable us t o handle problem s of deducti on .

This is the m ost imp ortant central principle of mathe

mati es namely that of inversi on or of creating a class
, , ,

of objects that will satisfy certain defining stateme n ts .

If the mathematician d oes not find these at hand in

natural phen omena he creates them a n d goes on in h is
,

uninterrupted pr ogress This might be considered t o be

.

the central principle of mathematics f or with the new ,

creati on we start a new line of mathematics just as the ,

ima ginary started the divisi on of hy p ernu mb ers just a s ,

the creati on of the algebraic fields started a new gr owth

in the the ory of n umbers Thus it is evident that mathe.

ma t ics is in no sense a cl osed b ook ; th at it s chief c oncern

 C HA PTE R XI V
S OUR C E S OF M A THE M ATI C AL RE AL IT Y
We have passed in review the subject—matter of
mathematics and the pred ominant characters of the
objects with which mathematics c oncerns itself We .

f ound that the objects it studied were numbers figures , ,

arrangeme n ts pr op ositi onal functi ons operati ons hyper

, , ,

numbers pr ocesses and deductive systems The chief

, ,
.

characters of these objects with which it busied itself

were those of structure invariance functi onality a nd , , ,

inversi on N 0 on e of these diff erent classes of entities

.

or characters h owever could furn ish a satisfact ory

,
‘

definition of ma thematics which w ould in clude the entire

subject Ye t we find in mathematics that subject wh ose
.

resul ts have lasted thr ough the vicissitudes of time and

are regarded universally as the m ost satisfact ory truths the
human race kn ows We have still t o inquire the s ource of .

the reality that is in mathematics its meth ods of arriving ,

at t riI th and the realm of validity of its c on clusi ons

,
.

The reality in mathematics has been ascribed by s ome

t o its experimental character ; in Sh ort it has been r e ,

garded as a bran ch of physics We find in deed a meth od .

given by A rchimedes and c onsi d ered by him t o be of ,

great use in disc overy at least if not in rig or f or finding

, ,

areas and volumes by mechanical c on siderati ons While .

this w ould not be exactly an e xperiment it is at least an ,

ideal e x periment and c ould be carried ou t in fact in ,

material of a pr oper kind A rchimed es arrived at the .

I

2
S ee M lh a u i d N ou vel l es étud es s ur
’
l his toir e d e l a p ens ee
’

s cien

p
,

tif t q u e, . 1 35 .
 S ources of Ma thema tica l R ea lity 155

area of a parab olic segment by considering it in eq uilibrium

at the end of a lever at the other end of the le ver con
,

s t r u c t ing a triangle wh o se area is theref ore the same as

,

that of the segment We remember als o that Galile o cut

.

ou t of tin f oil a cycl oidal arch and f ound its area t o be

three times that of the generating circle M ore recently .

kinematic meth ods have been applied t o va ri ous pr oblems

in ge ometry These few facts h owever are not of s o
.
, ,

much imp ortance f or their results a s f or the tacitly

received principle that all the re s ult s of math ematic s ,

whether of a physical origin or not c oul d nevertheless ,

be made the s ubject of experiment and the the orems ,

Sh ould pr ove t o be true within th e limits of err or of the

measurements This ascripti on of th e reali ty of mathe
.

maties t o a physical f oundati on is a p ositivistic explana

ti on of the truth of mathematics Th ose w h o h old th e .

view s tr ongly even g o S O far a s t o c onsider all mathe

ma t ica l results that cann ot be s o examin ed l ike the
—

—
the orems of f our d imensi onal space f or instance t o be
-
,

purely of symb olic i n terest and only p ossibly not a b s o ,

l u t el y
,
true The latest exp on ent of this philos ophic
.

standp oint is E n riques He con s iders ge ometry t o be a

.
2

system of c oncepts which have been extra cted fr om

sense data s omewhat like c omp osite ph ot ographs whose
-
,

vagueness has been replaced by Sharp cut features rather -

arbitrarily ch osen These c oncepts are put t ogether

.

by certain observed relati ons accordin g t o the particular ,

sense data c oncerned Thus f or instance fr om sight

-
.
, ,

we derive relations of pr ojective ge ometry fr om t ouch ,

the relati on s of metric ge ometry O n the basis of these .

idealized feature s of the physical w orld a b ody of th e orems

has been w orked ou t which apply t o the w orld only s o
2
P robl ems o f S cience .
1 5 6 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
far as the idealized data reall y fit the world The the o .

rems must be verified by the success of their applicati on s

directly and indirectly Al l that can be said of such a
.

system of deducti ons as the L ob a t ch ev s kia n ge ometry

is that its c onclusi ons are c onsisten t with each other s o
“

far a s we kn ow and its truth can only be verified if we

,

can find s ome way t o interpret its the orems in ordinary

Euclidean terms as P oin ca r e has d one The L ob a t chev
,
.

s kia n system bec omes thus a purely symb olic or empty

f orm and its w ords have n o mea n ing It is much the

, .

same a s if in dynamics we study the m oti on s of a planet

under a f orce varyi ng inversely as the seventh p ower of the
distance There is n o reality back of the study and its
.
,

interest is purely artificial .

It may be said in reply t o all such argumen ts that the

real world referred t o f or the ultimate test of reality is
after all indisputably the w orld as we kn ow it n ot as we ,

d o n o t kn ow it The greatest hy p othesis of all is that

.

there is a s o called objective w orld unless by the latter is

-
,

meant only that view of what we kn ow as the world which

regards it from the standp oint Of certain hy p otheses that
most sane men agree up on F or example m ost pers ons
.
,

w h o have reflected up on the matter agree that it is simpler

t o supp ose that the earth r otates than that it is stati ona ry .

M ore facts can be arranged under fewer laws in this

way N othing whatever in our sense data tells us that the
.
-

earth is rotatin g We may in terpret the same sen se data

.
-

fr om the viewp oi n t of the hyp othesis that says the earth

d oes n ot r otate M i l lion s of men actually have s o in ter
.

p e t ed their sensati on s
r N o S O called pr oof that the
-
.

earth r otates d oes m ore than pr oduce s ome phen ome n a

that we w ould expect it t o pr oduce if it did r otate B u t .

t he v eriest tyr o in l ogic kn ows that on e cann o t argue

1 5 8 Philos op hy of Ma thema ti cs
S ay s M ilhaud : 2

M a thema ti cs r uses the i terest d e thusi sm f phi o n an n a o

loso ph b ec use c sci usl y

ers a t every , e feel s th t i t
on o or n o , on a

re li es the mir cl e f s u ri g m t l e rl y i ts uc es l e
a z a o a s
—
n os c a s c s ss

by d cil e submi ssi t the re l ity th t ffers itself t th

a o on o a a O o us an

by t h sp t eity f the utb ur sts f the mi d by th ri ch ess

e on a n o o o n , e n

an d the p w er f i ts c re t ive ct ivi t y

o T h mi r cl e i s uch
o a a . e a s

th t i t eces ril y e c unter s sk ep t i cs

a n sa d w e must n o sid er , an con

it f inst t
or a n an .

L t us m k e ll the c cessi s p s ibl e t th e w h

e a a on on o s o os o a re

di sp sed t d e y i t
o L t
o ccep t if they d e ire i t eve ry
n . e us a , s ,

suggest i f exp e ri e ce
on t the b se
o f the m them t i c l n ,
a a o a a a

sci e ces i the t i s f umb e r m g i tud e q u t i ty sp ce

n ,
n no on o n ,
a n ,
an ,
a ,

m veme t l i e su rf ce v l me v ri t i
o n ,
n ,
f vel ci ty i fin
a ,
o u ,
a a on o o ,
n

it im l i c r eme t l i mi t etc ( wi th ut eve

es a n n ,
king i f there i s , . o n as

no t t le st
a l i ttl e truth in the c ri t i c l the ri es
a a d i f in th es a o ,
an e

first n t i s the r e d es
o on t e te r s me f r m l eces it y f r m
o no n o o a n s o

the hum mind) ; let us c ep t l s ll the s l i ci t t i s whi ch

an a c a o a o a on ,

in the c u e f the d evel p me t f

o rs o l y s i s g e met ry d o n o a na , o ,
an

mech nic c me ince

a s, tl y f r m the eve r w diffi c l ti es f
o s sa n o ne u o

the pr bl ems th t tu e sets ; l t us t d eceive u rsel ves

o a na r e no o ,
as

no d ub t they will k us t d
o t the w rk f el b r ti
as o o, a s o o o a o a on

whi ch q uite t r ll y mind p e rf rms u p

na u a the d t f ou r o on a a o

expe ri e ce whe i t g e e r l i es
n ,
b st r cts i such wi e t
n n a z or a a n s as o

c struct pi ctu r e t f p e rm e t i m ges d w rds whi ch

on a ou o an n a an o

se ve t de ign te them b ut yet with ut i d eed the re ri i g

r o s a ,
o n a s n

y q ue t i sp eci l c r e t i it r em i i c test bl e
an f s on o — a a a on a ns n on a

th t either these d t
a n the u rr e t p e r t i s fli t a a nor c n o a on su ce o

f ni h the ve ri t b l e el eme ts whi ch the m them t ici

ur s a n a a an

h dl es These l tte r f f r m being the r e idue f ex

an . a , ar o s s o

p i
er ence , f rme d by a re i ce s t ef f rt t el imi te
o an n s an o o na

f r m the im ge l l th t ret in s y c crete d se sib l e

o a a a a an on an n

q u lit y
a .

A c ti u u t r on f rm ti t r sp rts the m them t i i

n o s a ns o a on an o a a c an

f r m the
o d iti which h m i ev ry intui tive vi w d
con ons e n e e ,
an

N ouvel l es el ud es l his toire d e l a p ens ée s cientifiq ue, p

2 ’
s ur . 2 2.
 S our ces of Ma thema tica l R ea lity 1
59

pe rmi ts him thus t give birth t th se c re tu r s f t h r o o o a e o e ea s on

whi h hi i t ll ct d mi t
c s n e d by wh se id i t f rg
e o dl s na es a n o a o es en es

ch i s f pr p i ti s whi h rig r u l y impl y e h th r

a n o o os on c o o s ac o e .

Ul t i m t l y b ey da e y v,
i ib l e e x t ronl st i mu l us by ki d
an s e na ,
a n

o f tu r l u rr t f th ught pr b l m t th m l v d fi i
na a c en o o ,
o e s se e se es , e n

t i s c ll f rth w d fi i t i s ; g e r l iz t i
on a o ne f p il e n on en a a on s o a s ec a

c h r ct r ex t d t v ry m m t the d m i f v l idi ty f
a a e en a e e o en o a n o a o a

no ti d
on a n l rg e w ll the fi l d p t r t i l c st ru
en a as e e o en o a on a on e

ti n ;
o s th t i the pr e ce f t r t ise
so a n ly i es n o a ea on a na s s , or

e q u ll y a ge met ry on i s st i hed by the ri ch

o ,
d
on e a on s n ess an

v ri ety f wh l e w rl d f c cep t i s whi ch s m ev k d by

a o a o o o on on ee o e

the m gi c p we r f the min d f r m the i i t i l d t cc p t d

a o o o n a a a, a e e

on ce f ll Sh l l we
or a y th t i t i
. ill usi
a d ll th se sa a s an on , a n a e

ne w c re t i s t r l te re l l y l y d t b rr w d f r m p i
a on a ns a a on a a o o e o ex er

en ce ,
f r m s rt f se se i tuiti whi ch i l te t i i t "
or o a o o n -
n on s a n n

P ss ib l y b ut b e y d r e d uci g ev ry thi g t m r e su gg st i s
o ,
on n e n o e e on ,

b ey d the f ct th t the se su us i tui t i i s i s p r bl e

on a a n o n on n e a a

f r m the p we r f refin in g d c mbi i g i ev ry w y the l

o o o an o n n n e a e e

me ts i t fu r i shes b ey d t h f ct th t exp ri e ce i ts l f fte

n n ,
on e a a e n e o n

t k es sp eci l ch r cte r whi ch f rbid s i ts b i g x t ri r

a a a a a o e n e e o ,
as

whe i t i s d terminin g the f rm f

n e l g e br i c xpr i o o an a a e es s on

i s i t t still b vi us th t the e d wme t whi ch

no O o w d fi i a n o n a ne e n

t i h i s t i disp
on as, bl e f the ri hme t f m th m t ics
no n en sa or en c n o a e a ,

an d th t l g ch p ters
a on l ys i s ge m t ry wher the rems
a on a na or o e ,
e o

up the r ems c t ct i s up c t ruct i s

on o ,
on s r u m ssed on on on s on , a re a a ,

exhibit ex mpl e f d evel p me ts m i f stl y u l i mit d

an a o o n an e n e ,

wi th ut the ddit i f y w t i t th se with whi h

o a on o an ne no on o o c

on e b eg S h ll w e
an y the th t the m the m t i ci
a ly
sa n a a a a n on

dr w s t f the i it i l d t wh t w i mpl icitl y c t i d "

a ou o n a a a a as on a n e

T h t w ul d b e me r e m d e f sp ch f w h d e t p p
a o a o o ee ,
or o o s no a re

ci te ll the ct ivi ty ll t h g ius ll t h c r e t ive p we r

a a a ,
a e en ,
a e a o

n ece s ry t s a d t bri g f r th wh t i s h idd

o s ee a n i the i i t i l
o n o a en n n a

id s m r x ctl y Sh l l we t y t r l iz th m
ea ,
or , o e e a ,
a no sa ,
o ea e on e as a

f u d ti t h e ry ri ch st c t ructi
o n a on e v e on s on s

A n other s ource t o which the reality of mathematics

ha s been a s cribed is t o a non material w orld a world -
,
1 60 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
of universals We are spectat ors and students of this
.

world but it is external t o us even if non material ; its

, ,
-

structure e x ists outside of and independent of our think

, ,

ing faculty or our existence We disc over its eternal

.

verities but they were existent bef ore us and were true
,

thr ough out all time and will be true through out all time
,

t o c ome This is a reducti on t o a realism of the m ost

.

abs olute ty p e l l t is present in Plat o s philos ophy in a ’

s omewhat obscure but sublime f orm and of late has ,

appear ed in the philos ophy of Bertran d Russell Plat o .

insisted that the square and the diag on al dra w n on the

sand were merely things that resembled the real square
and the real diag onal which c ould be perceived only by
,

th ought He taught that bey on d ordinary mathematics

.
,

as far as it is beyon d the physical mathematics there is a ,

mathematics which has f or it s objects the w orld of i deal

numbers and ideal figures " N umbers are ideas
. T o each .

of the natural numbers up t o ten there c orresp on ds

an idea and each of these ideas has its ow n f orm not
,

derived fr om the mere ju x tap osition of units We are .

n one t oo certain as t o just what he had in mind but ,

fr om a study of the b ooks M and N of th e M eta

” “ ”

p hy s ics it would seem that he must ha v e had a glimmer

ing of the gen eral n oti on of en semble a nd of operat or ,

Since he makes much of the dyad which is a c ouple a nd

the dyad which is a duplicat or The tetrad f or instance .
, ,

w a s a c ombinati on of the t w o dyads An attempt w a s .

made als o t o identify the number ideas with the fig ure -

ideas F or instance the line c orresp on ded t o the dyad

.
, ,

the su r face t o the triad etc O n the basis of n oti on s

,
.

such as these an attempt was made t o build up an

abs olute philos ophy which had f or its object of study
ideas in general .
 62 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
and evil in general gr ow Side by side with the g ood ,

the true and the beautiful The D evil s ows his seeds
,
.

a n d raises his harvests al on g with the G od of truth .

“
N 0 true pr op ositi on c ould be called false A s well s a y .

that red could be a tast e in stead of a c ol or What is .

true is true ; what is false is false ; and there is n othin g

, ,
”
m ore t o s a y An d in our observati ons h ow are we t o
.
2

kn ow the true fr om the false " Think of it " An eternal

world in which everything is equally real equally stable , ,

equally imp ortant full of b oth the true and the false the
, ,

p ossible a n d the imp ossible that whi ch is and that which ,

never was rank with err or even th ough full of harm ony "
,

What criteri on ca n di f f erentiate betwe en the t w o "

What V irgil can g ui de our shrinking min ds t o Paradise
thr ough such an Infern o "
T he r e i s no prob l em a t a ll in t r uth a n d f a l sehood ;
some prop os it ion s a re t rue a nd some a re fa l se j ust a s some roses ,

a re r e d a nd s ome whi te ; b el ief i s a certa in a ttitude

t owa rd prop osi t ion s whi ch i s ca l l ed kn owl edge when they a re
,

t rue e rror when they a re fa l se Bu t thi s theory s eems t o

,
.

l ea ve ou r pr e fe ren ce f or t ruth a me r e un a ccoun t a b l e prej u di ce

.
,

a nd in n o w a y t o a n s w e r t o t h e f e el i n g of t r uth a n d f a l sehood .

T he a na l ogy with r ed a nd whi te ros es seems in the end , ,

t o express the ma tte r a s n ea rl y a s po s sib l e Wha t i s truth .

,

a n d wha t f a l sehood w e must merel y a pprehend f or b oth

, ,

seem inca p a b l e of a na l ysi s A nd a s f or the pr efe rence whi ch

.

most p eopl e— s o l ong a s they a re not a nnoye d by i nst a nces

f eel in fa vor of true prop osit ions thi s mus t b e b a sed a ppa r , ,

entl y up on a n ul tima tel y ethi ca l prop os i ti on : I t i s good

,
“

t o b el i eve true prop os i t i on s a nd b a d t o b el i eve fa l s e on e s

,
.

T hi s prop osit ion i t i s t o b e hoped i s t rue ; b ut i f not there i s

, , ,

no r e a son t o thi nk tha t w e d o ill in bel i evi n g it .

2

2
Ru s sell , Congr es inter d e p hil
‘

. .
, 3 p . 2 74 .

2
Rus sel l , M ind (new se ri es ) ,
13 pp 5
. 23 — 24
5 .
 S ources of Ma thema tica l R e a lity

Let us h ope that the s um of the three angle s of a tri

a ngle is f or at least it d oes not damage us any at
present t o believe it " What a travesty of truth " Is it
remarkable that l ogistic philos ophy c ollapsed in its ow n
c ontradictions " And were P oincaré living he still w ould
be waiting its su ccess or .

A third s ource t o which the reality of mathematics has

/ been ascribed is one fr om psych ol ogy the structure of the ,

mind itself as a static entity furnishi ng the data and

conclusi ons of mathematics M athematics is fr om this
.
,

s t andp oint only a state ment of laws of mind just as

, ,

physics is a statement of the laws of the natural world of

inanimate objects We may pass over the hist ory of this
.

idea t o Kant w h o is t o be c onsidered as th e great exp onent

,

of it . F or example number is not a c oncept he says

, ,
.

It is rather a men ta l scheme by which an image ca n be

c onstructed f or a c oncept It is s o t o speak a s ort of
.
, ,

w orkin g drawing f or the mental activity acc ordin g t o ,

which any particul ar number ma y be visualized The .

n umb er 1 0 0 f or i n stance is n ot a comp osite ph ot ograph

, ,

of th e di ff erent centuries we may have witnessed in ou r

c ounting of objects nor is it a symb ol which is t o be filled

,

in like t he c ountersigning of a check by reality havi ng

, , ,

no validity ti l l pr operly fi l led in It is rather an i n nate .

m ode of c onstru cting a hundred objects of whatever

matter comes h andy N um ber indeed is the unique
.
, ,

scheme by whi ch the cha os of data of the senses is

synthetized int o h omogene ous wh oles This schematic .

ability he says is hidden deep in the mysteries of the

, ,

h u man s oul and it is d ifficult t o exhibit its true nature

,

t o th e eye A few examples fr om modern mathematics

.

may make his meaning clear In his sense f or instan ce .

, ,

the rati onal n umbers or the rati onal p oints s ay fr om

, , ,
1 64 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
0 to are a dis organized set a cha os no unity visible
1 , , ,

in them Hereup on the scheme which has been called

.

density appears an a pri ori n oti on of the mind and

, ,

th e rati onal numbers are u n ified under th e term den se

s et
”
. F urther no analysis of the individual p oints would
,

e ver have revealed this term de n se Sin ce it d oes n ot ,

bel ong t o the individual p oints and appears only when ,

they are synthetiz ed by means of this purely mental

scheme In other w ords the p oin ts themselves are n ot
.
,

dense it is the unified c ollecti on a mentally unified col

, ,

lection which is dense The n oti on dense is n ot analyzed

,
.

ou t of the c ollecti on any m ore than ou t of the individuals ;

it is put int o the c ollecti on by the mind itself A s an other .

example we might ta ke uniform c onvergence Given a

,
.

series of terms in functi ons of x which defin es a function of

x then there exists unif orm c onvergence f or the series if
,

the following conditi on is fulfilled :statin g the pr operty a

little r oughly draw the graph f or the functi on defin ed
, ,

and draw a parallel curve on b oth sides of the graph ,

making a strip of any c onstant arbitrary width ; the

series has u n iform c onvergence if the appr oximati on
curves beginnin g with s ome determinate curve say the ,

n t h given by the first term of the series

-
,
the first t w o ,

terms the first n terms and s o on lie entirely within

, , ,

the strip N ow no one of the curves drawn ca n have

.

the pr operty of unif orm c onvergence This pr operty .

would never ha v e entered our discussi ons in case only

individual curves had been c onsidered It is a pr operty .

of the s e t of curves and as such is fur n ished t o the s e t

,

by the mind and in Kant s view must have been a part of

,
’

the mind s equipmen t It bec omes obvi ous that the

’
.

study of the data of sense in any scientific way is neither

m ore nor less than the s tudy of the ma nner in which
1 66 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
itself N ot only the enun ciati on of the pr oble ms escape s
.

all preassigned rule but even the meaning of s olu

,
”
ti on . It is t o Kant s gl ory that he placed the s ource
’

of mathematical verity where it bel ongs : in the a ctivity

of the mind What escaped his analysis he may be par
.

d on ed f or since the d octri n e of ev oluti on was n ot then

,

a scientific d octrin e It is indeed in the activity of the

.

mind that mathematical truth origin ates but not fr om ,

the m orph ol ogy or physi ology of the mind The min d it .

,

is true as Kant insisted organizes experience but it d oes

, , ,

this by meth ods that are evolution ary It originates .

schemes fr om its ow n activity a n d makes a ch oice of which ,

of several equally valid schemes it will u s e ) M athematics

,
has finally thr ough the l ong devel opment of the ages
‘

reached a vantage p oint fr om which it is able t o guarantee

-

the freed om of the min d eve n fr om a pri ori con diti ,

We c ome theref ore t o the latest s ource t o

, ,

mathematical verity may be ascribed the creative activity ,

of the mind which ever ev olves n ewer and higher f orms

,

of th ought The wh ole hist ory of mathematics sh ows

.

this c onstant evoluti on fr om s imple n oti ons and br oad

distincti ons t o increasingly subtle distincti ons and in t ri
cacy of f or m The s chema of Kant have received a new
.

and richer Signifi cance F or instance one of the latest.

,

categories of mathematics appeared when the n otion of

functi onal space was b orn This n oti on was not extracted .

by analysis as a s ort of residue or the fif tieth distillati on of ,

existing categories or data of the senses ; it has never been

claimed as an a pri ori n oti on of the human min d ; it simply
appeared a new and livin g creature of th ought In it s
,
.

struggle with the data of experience th e mind has had t o

d o the best it c ould in many circumstances and t o w ork
its way t oward freed om by a devi ous r ou te b u t in math e ,
 S ources f
o M a t he ma ti ca l R e a l it y 167

mati es it h a s come int o it s own at last and is able t o s ee,

clearly that it is free t o create s uch a b ody of kn owledge

as it finds either interesting or useful f or handlin g its pr ob
lems What th e future developments in mathematics
.

will be no one ca n s a y It is certain h owever th at the

.
, ,

field is n ot a cl osed one M a t hematics w ill not be Simply

.

c oncerned with the minute and intensive cultivati on of the

fields it al ready kn ows N ew n oti ons t o apply t o th ose
.

fields invented and new fields t o culti vate will be

,

truth is dependent not up on an empirical

,

world nor a transcendent reality nor a structure of the

, ,

mind but up on an increasing p ower and a higher facili ty

,

of t h e min d f or de vising a structure which will incl ose

the data of experience and a m ode of arra nging these

,

which will serv e t o explain them In studying ma the .

mati es we s tudy the con s tructi ons of the mind which

relate t o certain classe s of entities S ince these Sh ow a.

progre s sive and stable character a ccording t o which the

mind has b uilt patiently age by age we may c onclude ,

t hat th is stability is a witness t o a character of the min d

whi ch is an essential chara cter and that what it w orks ou t
,

in the future wil l have th e same character Its structures .

are stable even when l ike the Ptolemaic astron omy or t he

c orpus cul ar the ory of light they are left standin g unused .

There is real truth in these even th ough they

are not applied t o p henome s ource of mathe
ma t ica l truth is then the pr ogressive devel opme n t of the
mind itself If mind were un organized or cha otic or it s
.
, ,

c onstructions onl y fleetin g as the fantasies of dreams ,

mathematics w ould be imp ossible"If s ome of its creati on s

were applied t o practi cal life such as f our dimensional
,
-

space it might turn ou t that living would be m ore exp en

,

s i v e th an it is ,
but there is no imp os s ibility in s uch
1 68 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
applicati ons Bu t granted that the mind can create and
.

that its creati ons are perforce not self destructive but , ,
-
,

evoluti onary the n we have a guaran ty of that truth which

,

really inh eres in mathematics Whether such truth can .

be made of use inour daily life is an other questi on which

we must discuss in an other chapter in the field of validity ,

of mathematics We may qu ote a s t o the s ource of

.
,

mathemati cal truth Brun s chvicg z ,

2

T h e t ruth of the sci en ce d oes not Impl y the exi s t ence of a

t ra ns cen denta l rea l it y ; i t i s b ound t o the proce s ses of ve ri
.

fica t ion whi ch a re i mma nen t in the d evel op men t of ma the

ma t i es I t i s thi s ve ri fica t i on tha t w e ha ve b el i eve d w e coul d
.

un cove r a t the r oot of the con s t i tut ive n ot i on s of kn owin g ; i t

i s tha t whi ch we ha ve encountered a t the deci s ive moment s

when t he huma n mind s a w wid er horizon s a s well in the b ook ,

of t h e sc rib e Ah mes w h o g a ve the proof of h is ca l cul a t i on s wi th

,

f ra ct ions a s in the pri ma ry i nves tig a ti ons of N ewton a nd

,

L eib n iz in findi n g by a ri thmet i c a nd a l gebra the re s ul ts

they h a d a l rea dy ob ta ined by the u s e of i nfini te s e ri es M a the .

ma t ica l phil osophy h a s end ed it s t a s k by sett in g i tsel f t o foll ow

the na tu ra l ord er of hi sto ry by b ecoming consci ou s of t he ,

two whos e union i s the specific ma rk of int elli

ca p a city of progre s s p e rp etua l di s q ui etud e a s ,

t o ve

RE FEREN CE S
B ru n s chv icg , L es p es d e l a phil os ophic ma th éma tiq u e
’

eta .

M il ha u d ,
De l a cer titud e l ogiq u e .

Le r a tionncl .

2
L es
’

eta p es d c l a p hil os op hic ma théma tiq u e, p .

561 .
1 7 0 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
f a ce in the mid st of some mecha nica l invest iga t ions conne ct ed
( i f my memo ry s erves me right) wi th the mot i on of comp oun d
p endul ums ; or Huyghen s method of cont inued fra ct ions cha r
’

a ct eriz ed by L a gr a n g e a s on e of the pri ncip a l di s cove ri es of

tha t gre a t ma thema t i ci a n a nd t o whi ch he a pp ea r s t o ha ve b een

,

l ed by t h e con stru ct i on of h i s Pl a net a ry Aut oma t on ; or the

new a l g ebr a " inva ri ants"sp ea king of whi ch one of my p red eces
,

s or s ( M r Sp ott i s wood e) h a s sa id not without j ust re a son a nd

.
,

a uthori t y f r om t hi s ch a ir tha t i t r ea ches ou t a nd in di s sol ub l y

“
, ,

connects e a ch yea r with f resh br a nches of ma thema t i cs tha t ,

t h e theory of e q u a t i on s h a s b ecome a l most n ew th r ou gh i t ,

a l g eb r a i c g e omet ry t ra n s figu red in i ts l ight th a t the ca l cul u s ,

o f va ri a t i ons mol ecul a r p hys i cs a nd mecha ni cs "

,
he might , ,

i f s p ea ki ng a t the present moment g o on t o a d d the theory of ,

el a s t i city a nd the d evel opment of integra l ca l cul us"ha ve a l l

fel t i ts influence .
”

An d more re cently we ha v e t he remark s of H obs on on the 2

s ame s ubje ct :

T he a ctua l evol ution of ma thema ti ca l theori es proceed s by a

process of induction st ri ctl y a nal ogous t o the method of in duc
t ion empl oye d in buil din g up the phy si ca l sci ences ; ob s erva
t i on compa ri son cl a s sifica t ion t ri a l a nd g ene ra l iza t ion a re
, , , ,

essent ia l in both ca s es N ot onl y a re sp ecia l r esults ob t a ined

.
,

i ndependentl y of one a nothe r freq uentl y seen t o be rea ll y ,

i ncl uded in some gene ra l iza t ion but bra nches of the subj ect
.

which ha ve b een devel oped q uite i nd ependentl y of one a nother

a r e someti mes found t o ha ve connect ion s whi ch
t o b e synthet iz e d in on e singl e b o ess ent ia l
n a tu r e of ma thema t i ca l thou ght ma n if e dis ce rn
ment of fun d a ment a l id ent i t y in the ma thema t i cal a s pects
of wha t a re sup e rfici a l l y ve ry diff e r ent d oma in s
"
’ J
—
On ethe best examples we ca n find of this a s well
O
Of ,

as the other meth ods of mathematics is P oincaré wh ose , ,

.

2
N a ture, 8 4 p . 290 .
 The Methods of Ma thema tics 1 7 1

immense wideness of generalizati on said D ar w in and , ,

abunda n ce of p ossible applicati on s are s ometimes alm ost

be w ildering He invented F uchsian functi on s the n he
.
,

f oun d that they c ould be used t o s olve diff ere n tial equa
ti ons t o express the co ordinates of algebraic curves a n d
,
-
,

t o s olve algebraic equati on s of any order The very .

Simple substitution s of Sin es and c osin es or hype r b olic

fu n ction s which e n able us t o s olve quadratics a n d cubics
w ere in this w ay gen eralized s o that a single meth od
the u niformizati on of the variables e nables us t o s olve -

a n y algebraic equati on a n d t o i n tegrate any algebraic

,

expressi on The the ory of c on t inu ous gr oups he applied

.

t o hyperc omplex numbers and then applied hyperc omplex

numbers t o the the ory of Abelian i n tegrals a n d w as ,

able in this way t o generalize the pr operties of the peri ods .

He ge n eralize d the n oti on of Green s fun cti on discovering

’
,

the wide branch of fundamental fun cti ons and their uses .

He ge n eralized the n oti on of in varian t t o i n tegrals over

lines sur faces volum es etc and was able t o reach a
, , ,
.
,

ne w p oin t of attack on pr oblems of dyn amics He ge n eral .

ize d the figures of equilibri u m f or the heave nly b odies ,

disc overing an infi ni ty of new forms and p oin tin g ou t the

,

transiti ons fr om one f orm t o an other T o state all his .

generalizati ons w ould take t oo much space a n d would

on ly emphasize the great imp ortance of the meth od .

There is n o essential diff eren ce betwee n generalizati ons

of this mathematical type and th ose of science It is .

generalizati on t o s a y that pr ojective ge ometry merely

states the invarian ts of the pr ojective group and that ,

elemen tary ge ometry is a c ollecti on of statements ab out

the invariants of the gr oup of m oti ons Expansi on s in .

Sin es a n d c o sines are particular cases of expan si on s of

f undamental functi ons in general It is generalizati on t o
.
1 7 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
reduce the ph en omena of light fir st t o a wa ve the ory th en -
,

th ose of light electricity and magnetism t o the pr operties

, , ,

of the ether .It is generalization t o reduce all the laws of

mechanics t o the ge ometry of f our dimensi onal Lob a t chev -

s kia n space. When we s a y natural l a w we mean gepera li , .

z a t ion of s ome kind

"

Usually the pr ocess of generalization takes place by

mean s of the vari ous analogies present The observation .

o f these is necessary t o generali zati on Bu t there is an other .

m ode als o which leads t o generalizati on and that is the re ,

m oval of premise s in arguments or at least Of parts of prem

,

is es M u ch mathematical w ork of the present day c onsi s ts

.

in determining whether a c onclusi on can persist if the

premises are made a little less restricted S ome element .

is rem oved fr om the p ostulates or fr om the defining

character of the expressi ons and it is then f ound that the
,

c onclusi ons still h old F or example many the orems

.
,

ann oun ced f or functions of rather restricted typ e that are

t o be integrated are much m ore widely true if the inte

g r a t ion is defined in Lebesg u e s m anner The a n al

’
ogies .

f ound t o exist between widely d iff erent the ories enable

u s t o s ee fr om the on e the ory and it s devel opments h ow

unsuspected devel opments may be made in an other

analog ou s the ory This is one of the rea s ons why mathe
.

ma t icia n s value e the m ost i s olated investigations .

A S Whewell s aid : f the Greeks had not cul ti v ated

c onic secti ons Kepler could n ot have superseded Pt olemy ;
,

if the Greeks had cultivat ed dyn amics Kepler might ,

have anticipated N we may add that if ,

the Greeks had per ceived th e anal ogies between many

the orems on c oni c secti on s they w ould have invented
,

projective ge ometry If the w orld had s een t he purely

.

p ostulational character of much of ge ometry l ong investi ,

1 74 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
saw that the re sol ution of the algebrai c equation wa s
Simply a que s ti on of fun cti on s that were in v ariant under
th e interch ange of th e r oot s It is the in s ight of Riemann
.
,

wh o c onnect s the deformation of s urfa ces and the th e ory

of algebrai c fun cti on s It is the insight of Poin ca re
.
,

wh o di scu s s ed t he f orms of the curv es defined by di ff er

ent ia l eq u ations making an intuiti v e study in th is way
,

of th e ir v ery intri cate pr opertie s The introdu cti on by

.

Hermite of c ontinu ous variables in the problem s of

arithmeti c f orms enabled him t o write d own at on ce many
of the pr operties of t h e f orms T he identifi cati on of
"

f uncti on s with v e ct or s on an infinity of uni t d ire cti on s

and th e us e of s u ch term s as orth og onal fun cti on s make
dent m os t of the pr opertie s of in tegral
n is th at clear per cepti on that enables
keep in s ight h is pr oble m and th e
imp ortance of e very n oti on th at appears f or the pr oblem .

It is insight of th i s chara cter that enable s h im t o identify

hi s pr oble m with an o th er t o th ink analy s is in ge ometri c
,

terms and ge ometry in analyti c term s t o u tilize physi cs ,

t o h is own purp oses by s eeing in a physi cal pr oblem

exa ctly what he ha s in hi s analyti cal pr oblem It is f or .

s u ch u s e s a s th e s e th at th e devel op ment of physi cs is

u s ef ul f or the mathemati cian It is insight of thi s kind

.

that enable s him t o w ork in tuitiv ely in f our dimen s i onal -

s pa ce in m od ular s pa ce in non E u clidean s pa ce in t h e

, ,
-
,

real m of Ar chimedean numbers in th e region of t he ,

higher en s embles in th e corp ora of algebraic n umber s in

, ,

th e m od ular f orm s of Kr onecker in pr oje c ti v e dif ferential

,

ge ometry in th e f un cti onal space It is what Klein

,
.

meant when he s aid :QM 2

in general at
b ottom the s cience of the It is at the
A nwend ung d er Dili und I nt -r echnung f geometric, p 26
2
. au . .
 The M ethods of Ma thema tics 1 75

r oot of what Pr ing s heim meant : A single f ormula con

2

tain s infin itely m ore than all the l ogarithm tables on

earth ; f or it c ontain s the unb ounded multitude of all
p ossible thin k able cases while any l ogarithm table be it
, ,

never s o rich in numbers or h owever thic k can c on tain only ,

a limited number of cases O f the true significance and .

w on derful p ower of an a n alytical f ormula S ch openhauer ,

had n o c on cepti on The ability t o perceive this wealth

.

of applicati on and rich n ess of mea n ing is intuiti on in the

higher se n se It is only by intuiti on of this kind that a

.

pr ocess of l ogic can pr oceed f or the c onstant supervisi on ,

of the pr o cess the selecti on of premises the ch oice of

, ,

c onclusi on s (f or in the l ogic of relatives there are man y

c onclusi ons t o the same argument ) the percepti on of the ,

—
g oal t o be attained by the l ogic all these are the w ork of
"
the intuiti on A fine image of P oin caré s exemplifies the ’
.

“
matter He c ompares with a Sp on ge the final statement
.

of a piece of mathematical investigati on which when we , ,

fin d it is fully f ormed a n d c onsists of a de l icate lacew ork of

,

Silica needles The c onstructi on of this lacew ork h owever

.
, ,

was the work of a livin g creature and not t o be disc overed ,

merely by a study of the dead th ough fi nished pr oduct) , ,

It is the intuitive meth od that e n ables mathematics t o

pass in the directi on just opp osite t o that of l ogic namely , ,

fr om the particular t o the gen eral It is primarily a .

meth od of discovery a n d often starting fr om a few par

t icul a r cases is a l e t o s ee in them the orems that are

i
universally t r u e I t must be acc ompan ied by a keen
a n alysis and ready percepti on of what is essen
o ften happe n s that hasty generalizati on w ould

lead t o results that are not valid f or many new cases f or ,

the analytical p ower must be very keen F or in stan ce .

,

2
J a hr b . D eu ts ch . M a th Ver
. .
,
13 p .
3 63 .
1 7 6 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
the analysis Poinca re made of the s oluti ons of dif f erential
equati on s sh owed that in general the integral curves
wind around a limit cycle asympt otically a result that ,

c ould not have been generalized ou t of the few cases

that permit integrati on in terms of elementary fun ctions .

N one of these ha v e t he pr operty in questi on f or the ,

fact that they are in tegrable in elementary terms is due

t o a feature that elimi n ates this cycle It w ould take an .

extremely keen intuiti on t o perceive the imp ortance of this

feature The meth od of generalizati on is liable t o this
.

weakn ess a fact p oin ted ou t by Hadamard s o that the

, ,
2

generalized pr oblem must be swept very carefully with

the intuitive eye f or characters of this kind It is f or this .

reason that P oincaré insists up on the great value of a

qualitative study of a pr oblem in all its aspects .

The student w ho desires t o cultivate the intuiti onal

meth od can d o n o better than t o study the work of
P oincaré f or he had a penetratin g insight and in every
, ,

pr oblem which he considered he br ought ou t in sharp

relief the essential characters His meth ods of attack .

c onsist in large meas ure in f ocusing a brilliant light on

the pr oblem and exa min ing it minutely This method .

is d ifli cul t of acquisiti on but sh ould be the g oal of every

‘
,

mathematician Without ability of this kind any other

.
,

ability is at least badly cramped The fir s t hand study .

-

of the masters of mathematics is in general the m o st

successful meth od of acquiring certain skill of one s ’

ow n .The object of such study Sh ould be not s o much ,

their results as their M ,

oi arrivi n g at results In .

particular sh ould be Con sulted P oincaré and F ehr 3 2

.

2
B ibl iotheq u e d u congr és I nter n d c p hil
. .
, 3, p .
443 .

2
S cience et méthod c, p .
43 .

3 E nq u et e sur l a méth o d e de t r a va il d es ma théma t ii c ens , 1 9 0 8 .

1 7 8 P hilos op hy of Ma thema tics
latter in this particular case it has been proved that the
functi on with the property menti oned need n ot be con
t inu ou s .

The purp ose of the deductive meth od may theref ore , ,

be assigned a s tw of old :in t h e first place it is the meth od ,

of e x p ositi on of results ; in the sec ond place it is the ,

meth od of verificati on A s an e x p osit ory meth od it is .

indispe n sable Since n ot every reader can be supp osed t o

,

be equipped with kn owledge or with ability t o f ollow

the unbr oken trail by which the disc overer reached the
summit of his w ork but an easy r oad must be provided , .

It is t o be regretted that n ot m ore of the masterful

pieces of investigati on have been rep orted in the order
in which they actually pr oceeded but such rep orts ,

w ould be s omewhat more v olumin ous than by the l ogical

method of e xp ositi on and woul d c on tain many rep orts of ,

failures and unsuccessful meth ods of reaching the g oal .

These w ould be very useful t o the studen t but are gener ,

ally c onsidered not s ufli cien tl y elegan t in f orm f or the

presentati on of results Perhaps a g ood example of the .

intuiti onal meth od is t o be f ound in many of S ylvester s ’

papers Apr op os of his style N oether says :

.
2

xt i s p erme ted with s ci ted m ti l expre i s

T h e te a a so a e o on a s s on ,

b iz rr e utter ces
a d p r d x es
an d i s ev rywh r e
,
an c m a a o ,
an e e ae o

p i d by
an e t s whi h st itute
no e ,
e s t i l p r t f Sy l
c con an s en a a o

t
v es er s m th d f pr es nt t i
’
e o emb dyi g r l t i
o wh ther
e a on , o n e a on s , e

pr xi m te r m te whi ch m m t ril y ugg t d th ms l v s

o a or e o ,
o en a s es e e e e .

Thes tes full f i pir t i

e no ,
d cc i
o l fl h ns f g iu a on a n o a s ona as es o en s,

a re t h m r e st i m l t i g wi g t t h ir i
e o u ampl t n o n o e n co e en e s s .

Hi r e
s i g m v d i g r l iz ti s w f req u tl y i fl
a s on n o e n en e a a on ,
as en n u

en ce d by l ysi d t tim s w
a na guid d eve by mysti c l
s , an a e as e n a

n ume ri c l r el ti s Hi r
a a i g oni ts l s f r q ue tl y f
. s ea s on n con s s e s e n o

M th A
2
a l 5
. p 55
nna en , 0 . 1 .
 The Mcthods of Ma thema tics 1 79

pu re i tell igibl e c cl usi s th f i du ti s r th r

n on on an o n c on ,
or a e con

j t
ec u re s i cited by i dividu l b s v ti s d v ri fi t i s
n n a o er a on an e ca on .

I thi h w
n s g id d by
e as l g eb r i c se se d v l p d t h r ugh
u e an a a n ,
e e o e o

l g
on up t i with pr ce s f f rms
occ a on d thi l d h im
o sse o o ,
an s e

l uckil y t g e r l fu d me t l t ths whi ch i s m i st c s

o en a n a n a ru n o e n an e

rem i v il ed
a n e T he exp e ts f hi ti l h r on n o s es s en a c a

t i ti
a c er s i tuitive t l e t d f l ty f i ve ti t
cs a re a n n a n an a a cu o n n on o

which we w series f ide f l st i g v l ue d b ri g t h

o e a O as o a n a an ea n e

germ f f r itful meth d s

s o u o .

An example of the o ther f orm of expos iti on is given by

Hermite s w ork of which Picard said :
’
,
2

T h e r ea di ng of these bea ut iful memoir s l e a ves a n i mpr es

sion of simpl i city a nd for ce ; n o ma thema t icia n of the nin e
t eent h cen tu ry h a d mor e th a n He rm i te the sec ret of these
profound a nd hidden a l gebra i c t ra nsforma t ions whi ch once , ,

f ound seem on the othe r ha nd s o simpl e I t i s such a l gebra i c

, , ,
.

s kil l a s La gra ng e no d oub t h a d in mi nd when he sa id t o

L a voi si e r tha t some d a y chemi st ry woul d b e a s e a sy a s a l g ebra .

His cou r ses w e r e l i thogra phe d a nd w e r e r ea d a nd

pond ered by a ll the ma thema ti cia ns of his d a y He .

loved g enera l theor ems b ut on condit ion th a t they coul d b e

,

a pp l i ed t o the r es ol ut i on of p a r t i cul a r q uest i on s N ot a ll .

ma thema t i cia n s ha ve in thi s resp ect the sa me thought f ul ness ,

some a re sa t i s fied wi th the enj oyment of a nnouncing a b ea ut i ful

gene ra l theor em a nd seem t o fea r tha t they will s p oil their
,

a rt i st i c p l ea su r e by the thou ght of a n a ppl i ca t i on t o a sp ec i a l

probl em Wi th fe w ex cep t i on s his memoir s a re Short .

T he g ene ra l cou rse of the id ea s is set forth b ut pa rt i cul a rl y , ,

in hi s ea rl y ca r ee r the pr es ent a t i on i s synthet i c a nd the t a sk

, ,

of est a b l i shi ng the nu me r ous i nte rmedi a te the or ems whose ,

st a t ement a l one is Often given i s l eft t o the r ea de r ,

.

The chief functi on of the l ogical meth od h owever is , ,

that of verificati on In order t o attach any new w ork .

2
A nn L ecol e
.
’
norma l e 18 p . 1 .
1 80 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
s olidly t o the structure already existing rec ourse must be,

had t o dem onstrati on The demonstrati on must start

.

with definiti ons of the new terms t o be used with certain ,

p ostulates regarding them and with references s omewhere

,

t o o ther the orems that are already kn own t o be true .

The framing of the new definiti ons is a part of the p ro

ced u r e that needs great care since the implicati ons of
,

vague d efinitions may lead to great err or The p ostulates .

have of late years received much attenti on and several ,

mathematicians c on cern themselve s chiefly with the p ro

ducti on of p ostulate system s f or the vari ous parts of
mathematics The p ostulates are examined carefully
.

as t o their independence and s ome attempt is made t o

,

reduce the number as l ow as p ossible S o much stress .

has been laid on this part of the l ogical presentati on of

mathematics that it ha s s ometimes in rece n t years seemed
that the chief c oncern of the investigat or was t o rem ove
mathematics c ompletely fr om the w orld of living th ought ,

“ ”
and make it one vast taut ol ogy of the implicati ons of a
few definiti ons and a few a s s ump t ions fil h e l ogisti ‘

cia n s in particular overemphasized this phase H owever .

,

the p ostulati onal meth od of presentati on has it s place ,

which is s omewhat like building the f oundati on f or an

architect s design in such wise that the c oncrete design
’

will be stable f or all t imeD The p ostulati onal meth od ,

h owever is imp otent t o pr oduce pr ogress or t o create

,

new branches of mathematics or t o disc over new the orems

,
.

It is the m ode of rig or ous presentation of what has been

f ound s ome other way 2

The chief functi on of symb olic l ogic is t o further the

examinati on of a system of defini ti ons and p ostulates s o ,

2
Cf . Pea no, F or mul a r io M a thema tico; Whi t eh ea d a nd Ru s s ell ,
P rincipia M a thcma tica .
182 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
ge ometries rch imedean c ontinuity t ra nsfinit e num
,
n on-A ,

bers hyperspaces of all types imaginary space fun cti onal

, , ,

space are g ood examples of what has actually been

,

created This is the stamp of the great mathematician

.

par excellence t hat he Creates a new s et of entities

, .

These entities arise ge n erally a s the demands f or s oluti ons

of equati ons or pr op ositi ons of s ome type or o ther n eces s i

tate a wider d omain The imaginary w a s created t o make

.

the s oluti ons of quadratics always p ossible Elliptic .

functions were created t o make the integrati on of square

r oots of cubics and quartics always p ossible The
. .

F uch s ia n f un ctions and related functions were invented

t o enable algebrai c equati ons t o be unif ormized and t o
render their in tegrati on p os s ible Ideal number s were .

created t o enable the pr operties of integers t o be ex

tended t o other numbers Abstra ct fields were invented
.

t o f ur n ish a d omain in which there are n o limiti n g

pr ocesses .

An other function of the creative meth od is t o in v ent

cases which will sh ow th at s ome pr op osition h a s a l imited
range of validity or that s ome definiti on needs t o be
,

further divided A c onspicu ou s case w a s the invention

.

by Weierstras s of a function that wa s continu ous but had ,

n o derivative The mere existence of such a functi on

.

intr oduced radical changes in the de finiti ons of f un cti ons

and the criteria that were applied in certain cases It .

sh owed that continuity w a s a s eparable property and

could be res olved int o several kinds of continuity The .

functi on invented by D a rb oux t o Sh ow that alth ough ,

it t ook every intermediate value between tw ogiven values

in passing fr om x = a t o x = b it yet was disc ontinu ous, ,

Sh owed again that one of th e properties of c ontinuity w a s

, ,

n ot a s ufi cien t pr operty t o define continuity It is tru e .

 The Mcthods of Ma thema tics 183

that creation of this critical character is not s o fundamental

as that of a syn thetic character but it is in the end n eces ,

sary and extremely useful O ther cases might be cited .

,

such as the curves that fill up an area the J ordan curves , ,

the m on oge nic non analytic functi on s of Borel etc These

-
,
.

are no m ore artificial than were in their day the negative

and the imagi nary Indee d the time may come when the .
,

demands of physics may make it necessary t o consider the

pa th of an electron t o be a c ontinu ous non differentiable -

curve and the Borel functi on may bec ome a ne cessity

,
“
t o explain the fin e grain ed character of matter -
To .

the evoluti on of Physics Shoul d corresp ond an evoluti on

in M athemati cs which of c ourse wi th out aband oning
, , ,

the classic and well tried the ories shoul d devel op h ow -

, ,

ever with the results of experiment in view

,
”
.
2

The origin of th ese creati ons is a most interesti ng

question f or the psych ologist and is buried in the mys
t eriou s depths of th e mind An interesting acc ount of it
.

is gi v en by P oincaré in a de s cripti on of s ome of his ow n

creati ons t o be f ound in his b ook S cicnce ct mé thod e His
, ,
.

conclusi on may be stated briefly thus : t h e mi nd is in a

sta te of evoluti on of new ideas and new mental f orms ,

s omewhat c ontinu ou s ly O f th ose that come t o the .

fr ont s ome will hav e a certain relati on of harm ony and

fitnes s f or the pr oble m at hand which secures f or the m ,

keen attenti on They may t urn ou t t o be just what is

.

wanted s ometimes they ma y turn ou t t o be unfit or even

,

c ontradict ory There seems little t o add t o th is state

.

ment f or it pretty ac curately describes what every

,

reflective mathematician h a s observed in his own mental

activity A little emphasis ma y be laid h owe v er on the
.
, ,

B orel L ect u re a t Ri ce Ins t i t u t e I d i m i

’
2
, 9 ; n t o uct on g o ét q u e,
1 12 r e r
‘
a q u el q u es theor ies p hy s iqu es , pp . 1 26—1 7
3 .
184 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
Significance of the fa ct that s ometimes the newb orn
n oti on s are c ontradict ory t o the kn own the orems because ,

this fact s h ows c onclusively that the mind is n ot impell ed

t o its acts by a blind causality In that case the new .

f orms w ould have t o be always consistent This faculty .

is anal og ous t o that p ossessed by the artist Indeed .

,

many have n oted the numer ous relati ons of mathematics

t o the art s that create the beautiful S ylvester said : .
2

“
It seems t o me that the wh ole of aesthetic (s o far as
at present re vealed ) may be regarded a s a scheme havin g
f our centers which may be treated as the f our apices of a
,

tetrahedr on na mely Epic M usic Plastic M athematic

, , ,
”
, ,
.

P oinca re wa s specially the advocate of the aestheti c

character of mathemati cs and reference may be made t o
,

his many essays M any others have menti oned the fa ct

.

in their addresse s T he cultivati on of the aesthetic

.

sensitiveness ought theref ore t o assist the creative ability

, ,

of the mind .

P oinca r e p oints ou t that these flashes of inspirati on

usually f oll ow long and inten s e attenti on t o a pr oblem .

That is one must endeavor t o generali ze t o turn the

, ,

searchlight of intuiti on on the pr oblem t o dedu ce fr om ,

every phase of it all the c onsequences that f ollow and ,

then he must trust t o the sp onta neity of the mind s ome

day t o furnish the newb orn creature that is engendered by
these pr ocesses The pr ocess of maturing the conception
.

ma y even take years This f ourth method is the culmina

.

ti on the cr own of the others and of the acquisiti on s of the

, ,

mathematical student He must read widely scrutinize

.
,

intently reflect pr of oundly and watch f or the advent

, ,

of the new creatures resulti n g If he is of a philos ophic .

2
Col l ected P ap ers , 3 , p . 1 23 .
 C HA PTE R X VI

VAL D I ITY OF M AT HE M ATI C S

We have surveyed the wh ole of mathematics fi nding ,

it t o be a c onstantly gr owin g creati on of the intellect ,

c on structed prim arily f or its own sake The ma thema t i .

cia n builds becau s e he enj oys the b uilding a n d the fascina ,

ti on of h is creati on is the impetus that keeps him creating .

It is not the usefulness of what he creates but the innate ,

beauty of it that he is f orever thirstin g f or P oin caré .

,
2

the subtlest of the mathematical phil os ophers said ,

The sci enti st does not study na tu r e b eca use i t i s useful ;

he studi es i t b eca use i t pl ea ses him a nd i t pl ea ses him b eca u s e
,

i t i s b ea uti ful Were na tur e not bea uti ful i t woul d not b e
.
,

worth knowin g life woul d not b e worth livin g I d o not mea n

,
.

he re of cou r se tha t b eaut y whi ch impresses the senses the

, , ,

b eauty of q ua lities a nd a pp ea ra nces ; not tha t I despi se it

f a r f rom i t ; b ut th a t ha s n ou ght t o d o wi th sci en ce ; I mea n
tha t sub tl er b ea uty of the ha rmoniou s ord er of the p a r ts whi ch
pu re i ntell ect p erceives Thi s i t i s whi ch gives a b ody a
.
,

sk el eton a s i t w e re t o the fl eet in g a pp ea ra nces tha t cha rm the

,

sen ses a nd wi thout thi s supp or t the bea uty of these fugi tive
,

drea ms woul d b e but imp e rfect b eca use i t woul d b e un sta bl e

,

a n d eva n esc ent On the con t ra ry in tell ectu a l b ea ut y is sel f

.
,

s u fli cient a n d f or it s s a k e r a the r tha n f or the g ood of huma ni t y

, , ,

does the scient i st cond emn himsel f t o l on g a nd tedious l a b or s .

The Greeks studied c onic secti ons tw o th ousand years

before they were of u s e t o any one at all and the imaginary ,

and complex functi ons were developed l ong before they

were of u s e t o the wireless telegrapher N evertheless .
,

2
S cience et méthod c , p . 1 5 .
 Va lidity o f M a t he ma ti cs 18 7

the tree Yggdrasil has its r oot s in the earth and thence
draws sustenance f or its growth A s P oin caré and .

B orel p oint ou t many of the n oti ons of mathematics had

,

their origin in the demands of physics f or a scheme by

which it c ould think the material w orld such n oti ons
—

as c ontinuity derivative integral dif fere n tial equati on

, , , ,

vect or calculus and the integral and integr o diff erential

,
-

equati on Equally the learning of ma n kind in its ef forts

.

t o understand its ow n whence why and whither has , ,

f urnished suste n ance f or an other r oot of the trunk .

Pythag oras Plat o Leibniz Kant Poin ca r F mer el y

, , , ,

t o menti on these names bri n gs t o mind the deb t of

mathematics t o the phil os ophic th ought of the ce n turies .

The search f or that in life which w a s definitive f or freed om ,

Of the i n tellect f or t he unity and harm ony of the spirit as

,

—
well as of nature all these have c on tributed t o the s u s
t ena n ce of the trunk even if they c oul d n ot be part of the
,

tree And the other r oot was the accumulated learn i ng of

'
.

t h e pfis t We are t oday heirs of the wh ole past in mathe

'
.

mati es N othing is wasted n ot hin g is dissipated but the

.
, ,

wealth the flashi ng gems of learnin g which are the reward

, ,

of painful t oil of men l ong s ince dead are ours t oday a , ,

capital which enables us t o advance the faster a nd t o

increase the riches a l l the m ore With such a s our ce of .

p ow er we must then inquire where the mathematician will

find a valid d omain in which t o justify t o the rest of the
w orld his right t o exist What is its fruitage either in
.

bl oom or in mature fruit f or th e sustenance of the nati ons "

Wh at st orms w ill its f oliage pr otect fr om and what distant ,

peaks with their glistening sl opes are visible fr om its

l ofty summit " S in ce it rears its head s o pr oudly in t o the
rarefied upper atm osphere where only the privileged few
ca n ever g o what can it bring d own f or the inspirati on
,
188 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
and the refresh ment of man " These will be our cl osing
themes .

We may pass over the service that mathematics

renders t o the applied sciences such as engineering I t s ,
.

obvi ous imp ortance is plain t o everyone I t s chief .

service t o science is the c onstructi on of definite

m odels f or th e c oncepti ons and the ories of science S ays .

M ilh aud : 2

F r om the r emotest t imes t o ou r ow n d a y the g ood f ortune

of ma thema t i ca l sp ecul a t i on s cont inues M a thema t i ci a ns .

ha ve ma d e un ima gina b l e progress in a b st ra ct ion ; the el ements

they d efin e in cea s el es s fl ow ca rry them fa rther a nd fa rthe r ,

not onl y f rom the ma te ri a l w or l d b ut f r om a l l con c r ete f ou nd a

,

t i on ; there is l ess a nd l ess of thing s more a nd mor e of rel a t ion s , ,

functions ens embl es grouping s even mod es of grouping s ;

, , ,

a n d i f the r e is st ill a l a n gu a g e wh ose w ord s ha ve c onc r ete

Significa nce l ik e spa ce p oints lines pl a nes i t i s onl y the

, , , , ,

r ema ins of a n ol d ill usion f or the spa ce i s n dimens ional the

,
-
,

points l i nes a nd pl a nes a re a s much i ma gina ry a s rea l a t

, , ,

infinity a s well a s a t a finite dista nce ; t he funct ions may or

ma y not b e expr essib l e in a fin ite numb e r of symb ol s they ma y ,

b e continuous or dis continuous a nd ca n esca p e a ll ima gery a ny

, ,

representa tion Yet howeve r high ma thema t i cia ns seem t o b e

.
,

ca rri ed in their reve ri es a b ove a l l sen sib l e r ea l i ty a ll the ,

symb ol s tha t they c rea te a nd whi ch seem na tu r a ll y a nd spon

t a n eou s l y t o evok e the ir ki n d by a s piri tu a l nee d fin d or wil l ,

find a pl a ce of a ppl i ca t i on— a t fir st d oub t l ess lik e t h e p a r a b ol a, ,

of a r e a s t o q ue s t i on s st ill theoret i ca l f or ex a mpl e t o some

, , ,

t ra ns forma t ion u s eful f or ce rt a in a na l yt i ca l expres s ion s then ,

soone r or l a te r t o t h e sol ut ion of some di fficult y in mecha ni cs ,

physics or a s t ronomy
,
.

T hese a re t he t w o cont ra di ctory cha ra ct ers w hi ch ma k e

up the a pp a rent mira cl e of ma thema ti ca l thought ; spont a nei ty
in the flight of the mind whi ch f or eig n t o a ll ut il it a ri a n pr e
, ,

2
N ouvel l es étud es s ur
’
l his tor ic d c l a p ens ée, p .
30 .
1 90 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
At the same time the t otal dif f erential equation ha s had
it s i n fluence in devel oping physics The m ovement of a .

single particle has been c onsidered t o be a c ontin u ous

e n tity and t he t otal dif ferential equati on e n te rs in an
,

imp ortant r ole If we c onsider a system of particles the

.
,

number of d iff erential equati on s in creases Pr obably the .

mo st celebrated pr oblem of this ty pe is that of N b odies

in astr on omy which has been studied a long time and
,

h a s reached a defin itive s olution only quite recently If a .

b ody is supp osed t o be made up of small particle s a p p r oxi ,

mately p oints and these are supp osed t o m ove slightly

,

fr om their p ositions we arrive at a discrete the ory of

,

elasticity The m ovements in the simplest case are

.

peri odic the periods determining the specific constan ts

,

of the b ody If now we supp ose the number of particles

.
, ,

t o appr oach infinity we may substitute f or the t o tal,

d iff erential equati ons which bec ome infinitely numer ous ,

a fi nite number of partial di fferen tial equati ons and thu s ,

come ba ck t o the previo us syste m o f equati o ns whi ch s up

p ose a continuous medi um .

M ore m odern devel opments in physics have led t o

at omistic concepti ons of matter electricity and energy , ,
.

The Br ownian movement of at oms the electr ons in ,

various rays and the quanta of the radiation the ories are
,

centers of the new physi cal the ories that are in the
making F or these it seems a mathematics oi th e to tally
.
-

discontinuous is necessary The d iff erential equati on .

gives place t o d iff erence equati on s the defin ite integral ,

t o the infinite s um the analytic functi on t o the m on ogenic

,

functi on The speculati on s of mathematicians on the

.

ensemble the Lebesgu e integral the t otally disc ontin u ous

, , ,

are findin g their sphere of application N ot only this but .

,

the kinetic the ory of gases ha s demanded functions of a

 Va lidity f
o M a t he ma ti cs 191

very large number f variables and the pr perties f b dies

o ,
o o o

in Space of n dime n si ons are thus bec omin g of use N .

dimensional ellips oids where N is very large appr oachi ng

, ,

i nfi nity we may say have certain properties which are

,

useful in these c onnections .

Physics has not only reinstated the once discarded

acti on at a distance which disappeared fr om all the
,

the ories of c ontinu ous media but has als o intr oduced the
,

m ore recen t n oti on of acti on at a distance in tim e The .

pr ocedure of a phen omen on may no longer depend s olely

up on the state immediately preceding but may als o ,

depend up on states at s ome distance rem ote in time .

What will take place t om orr ow depends n ot on ly up on ,

what takes place t oday but als o up on what t ook place day
,

before yesterday In s ome phenomen a the past is able

.

t o reach int o the future a n d a f f ect it as well as the present .

We find , h owever that mathematics is buildin g a system

,

of n oti ons that are applicable here and the functi ons of ,

lines and planes a nd o ther c onfi gurati on s t ogether with ,

the in tegr o dif ferential equation rece n tly discussed by

-
,

Volterra are able t o handle these pr oblems We might

,
.

add that if the day c omes when there are phen omena
in physics l ike the lines of the spectra of the elements
, ,

which can be stated in laws that involve integers even ,

the abstracti on s of the the ory of numbers wil l be applied

t o the advance of physical kn owledge The d omain of .

validity of mathematics in this directi on w ould seem t o b e

all natural phenomena wh ose m odel c orresp onds faith
fully t o the c onstructi ons of s ome part of mathematics .

Whe ther a ll science ca n be framed acc ording t o m odels

of this kind is f o r the futur e t o say .

The devel opment of mathematics has pr of oundly

influenced phil os ophy We need but menti on Pythagoras
.
,
192 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
Plat o D e s cartes S pinoza Leibniz Kant C omte and
, , , , , ,

Ru ssell in order t o call t o mind phil os ophers wh ose

,

sys tems were c ontrolled largely by their views of mathe

mati es There hav e been als o mathematicians w h o have
.

been at the s ame time philos ophers and whose criticisms ,

hav e largely influen ced existin g sys tems The existence .

indeed of mathematics it s evergreen growth and it s , ,

c onstant success in creating a b ody of kn owledge wh ose

value is univ ersally admitted are a challenge t o the ,

philos opher t o d o a s mu ch and at the s a me time an ,

encouragement t o him t o per s ist in h is search f or the

explanati on of thing s as they are There is at the present .

time an in creasing trend t oward each other of the t w o

disciplin es The philos opher is confronted t oo with the
.
, ,

added d ifli cul ty that he cann ot h ope t o have a c omplete

s ystem unless he acc ounts f or the existence of mathe

mati es and assigns a value t o it in human e con omy ,

and in order t o d o this he must perf orce learn s ome

mathemati cs He must kn ow what the mathemati cian
.

h a s f oun d ou t f or h imself ab out h is ow n science and th e ,

s ignifi cance of what he h a s f ound ou t f or the rest of

the th e ory of kn owle dge The irrati onal wrecked the .

Py thagorean sch ool the universal wrecked the Plat onic

,

s ch ool th e reality of mathemati cal constru c ti on s wrecked

,

C artesianism th e ideality in mathematics wrecked Leib

,

niz ia nis m th e arbitrary c onstru c ti ons of mathemati cs

,

wre cked Kant s phil os ophy and the s cientific value of

’
,

them wrecked C omte s p ositivism the free creation ’

,

in mathematics wrecked Russe l l s logistic and answers ’

Berg s on s criti cism s of mathematics while it substantiates

’

his fundamental c ontenti on The s earching analysi s the .

mathematician h a s made of his own con cepti ons h a s not

onl y ill uminated th e m but at the s a me time h a s cleared
,
 1 94 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
F inally we find a d main the validity of mathe
o f or
mathi es in a region that might seem at first rem ote in deed .

B u t nevertheless the truth in mathematics a free creati on ,

of the imagi n ati on incar n ated in f o rms of the reas on ,

guarantees the tr uth of other free creati ons of the imagin a

ti on when they are s e t f orth in the realities of life P oetry .
,

music paintin g sculpture a r ch it ect ur e ma y we call them

, , ,
h

the other fine arts — create the beautiful and give expres
si on t o the l ongings a nd h opes of man Bu t they have .

been t old f or cen turies that these were but dreams visi ons ,

of that which did n o t exist s a d t o say ficti on s that on e , ,

could but View f or awhile then with a sigh return t o c old

, , ,

reality M athematics vindicates the right of all these

.

t o stand in the fr on t rank of the pi oneers that search the

real truth a n d find it crystallized f orever in brilliant gems .

The mathematician is fascinated with the marvel ous

beauty of the f orms he c onstructs and in their beauty he ,

fin ds everlasting truth The scientist studies nature f or

.

the same reas on and in its harm onies finds als o everlasting
,

truth Bu t the nature he studies is the creature of h is

.

ow n c on structi on His c oncepti ons and the ories and

.

scientific systems he really b uilds himself S o t oo the .

, ,

artist sees beauty and c onstructs imperishable f orms which

als o have everlasting truth M any mathematicians have .

b orne witness t o the element of beauty in mathematics :

P oin caré high priest of beauty in mathematics a nd
,

science S ylvester w h o wr ote rhaps odies in the midst of

, ,

his mathematical mem oirs Pringsheim Kummer K ro , , ,

necker Helmh oltz BOcher B Peirce R ussell H obs on

, , ,
.
, , ,

Picard Hadamard why pr olong the list " A nd because

,
—

ma thematics c on tains truth it e x ten ds its validity t o the ,

wh ole d omain of art and the creatures of the c on structive

i magin ati on B ecause it c on tains freed om it guarantees
.
,
 Va l idity of M a t he ma ti cs 1 95

freed om t o the w h ole realm of art B ecause it is not .

primarily utilitarian it validates the j oy of imaginati on

,

f or the pure pleasure of imagin ati on .

“
N o t in the gr oun d of need n ot in bent and painful ,

t oil but in the deep centred play instinct of the w orld in

,
- -
,

the j oy ous m ood of th e eter n al B ei ng which is always ,

y oung science has her origin and r oot ; and her spirit
, ,

which is the Spirit of ge n ius in m oments of elevati on is ,

but a sublimated f orm of play the austere a n d l ofty ,

a nal ogue of the kitten playing with the entangled Skein or

”
of the eaglet sp orting with the m ou n tain winds
2
.

RE FERE NCE S
Keyser Th H m W th f Rig
,
e Thi ki g
u an or o or ou s n n ,
19 16 .

K y r M th m ti C l mbi U i r ity L t r
2
e se , a e a cs , o u a n ve s ec u es , 1 9 0 7 .
 C ENTRAL PRIN C IP E f MT
L S O :
OB JE CTS F OR M

IE tesem
n g er s
bl e theo ry
LEitep r lsiori ths metic
n
a a

Compl e es
x an n

P o t g e omet ri es
x
in
Fu ct io l sp ces
n na a
NUM BE R

P oi ts P oi t sp ce f
L es me s s
n n a o two 0

Su rf ces
in
L
. m o r e
m g eo met ry
di i o n n

VHagriheetreseleme
a
i
ts Su r ce g eomet ry
fa
e

AHbigsheolute g e omet ry
r el eme ts
i n
S
PA CE n

CS teomreboichemtoryst ry l
na a na y si

Theo ry sym bol s of

i l

F ou d t i o s
n a n

of rel ti ves
a

S ub sti tut io s
TGrrouspfsorm t io
an
n
a n s
M UTATION

L inelgerb rsssoci tive

a a a

F u ct io l
a a
t ra ns f or
m tio s
n
a
na
n

Com po site ct io s
Actio l st uctu res a n
na r

Syll ogi sms

C l cu lus f d
a o ed uc
20 2 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
C on t en t of ma t h ema t i cs , 2 E u l id r t i
c
’
s a o, 1 9
C on t inu e d fr t i ac on , 2 2 E ul r 7 e ,
1 1

C on ti p r ti
nu ou s o e a on s , 87 Epnin
x a s o s, 1 28

C ot es , 1 08

C ou m ot , 1 30
Fa r d y 73
a a ,
1

F hr r f r
C ou tu ra t , rfr
e e en ce , 63 , 66 , 6 8 ,
e , 76
e e en c e , 1

F rm t
e a 49 1 02, 1
80 ,

Fi l d
C r tiea ve met h o d in ma t h ema t e 4 s, 1 1

F ig r f q il ibri m
u es o 7 e u u 1 1
ics , 81 ,

F i i t diff r
1

r
C inkl y r cu v es , 2
n e 94 e en ces ,

F rm
t r f p 7
o 1 2
C u r va u e o s a ce , 43
,

F rm t r l pri ipl 9
Cyl 5 2
o a s cen a nc e,

F r yt h
c e,
o s q t d 36
e, uo e ,
1

B rb x
a ou ,
1 82; rfr e e en ce , 46 F r d im
ou -
i l p 39 en s on a s a ce ,

D d ti
e uc ve m th d i
e o n ma th ema t F re h t r f r
c e , 9 95 e e ence , 2 ,

ics , 1 76 Fr g 6 9
e e,

D efic i en t nu m br
e s, 1 6 F h i
uc f ti s an u nc on s , 1 1

De ir 8
Mo v e, 1 0 F un c ti l q ti
on a 5 e ua on s , 1 1

D i ty f p i t t 6 4
en s o o n -
se s , 1 F un c ti l p on a 8 s a ce , 1 2

D enum r ti f r ti
e a l mon o a on a nu F un c ti l i ty on a t r l pri as c en a n

br 4 e s, 2 c1p l e , 9
D rt 3 7 9 ; q t d 3 7
es c a es , ,
1 2 uo e , Fu nct i on s , 1 4 2

Di k c 37; r f r
s on , 1 96 e e ence , Func ti on s of a co m le p x ri bl va a e,

D iff r t i l q
e en ti 5 a e ua on s , 1 0 37
D iff r t i l g m t ry 44
e en a eo e ,
1 Fu nc t i f hy p
on s o mb ern u er s , 1 4 6

D i ph t i
o an
q ti n e e ua
49 on s , 1 F un c ti f li on s o
44 n es , 1

D i ph to 6
a n us , 1 0 F un c ti f t f bj
on s o se s o o ect s , 54
Di ti
s con gr p 9nu ou s ou s, 2 Fun d m t l f ti
a en a un c ons , 1 ,
11

Di ti
s con p r ti 8 7
n u ou s o e a on s ,

D bl r id Ga l il 55
eo , 1
ou e es u es , 1 1
l i 54 9
D bl t r it i ity 8 6 Ga o s, 9 3 94 0,
ou e an s v , ,

l i fi ld
,

D uh em, q u ot ed , 1 2 4 Ga o s 5 e ,
1 1

l i t h ry f q ti
y i
D n a m c ma t h ema t cs , 8 i Ga o s eo o e ua on s , 1 1 4,

1 49

El t i 4
ea cs , G a u s s , 4 2 , 1 0 2 ; q u ot e d , 5
E l t r dyn mi 3 7
ec o a cs , r b
G en e a l en s em l es , 2 9
E nriq 4 58 ; r f r
u es , ,
e e en ce , 1 28 , G ene rlr g
a an es , 1 2 8

I SS G ene r l iz ti i
a a on n ma t h ema t i cs ,

E n mbl se e, 2 4 1 71
E u l id 6
c ,
I , 3 5 , 90 G eomet ri c ca l cul i ,
1 30
 I mtcx 2 03

ri l l m
G eome t ca e e en t s , 1 2 9 Infini t c l l ti n 6e o ec o s, 2

G ibb r f r s, e e ence , 1 1 6 Infini ty 7 8 ,

Gr m
a ss 38 3 a nn , ,
I 0 Int g r inv nt d 4
e e e e ,
1

Gr f ti
een s
’
un c on s , 1 50, 1 71 Int gr diff r nt i l q t i n 9
e o- e e a e ua o ,
1 1

G r p f E l id
ou o uc ea n mov emen t s ,
I nt i ti n l m th d in m t h m t
u o a e o a e a

45 , 8 8 , 8 9 ics , 1 73
G r p
ou of l i r fr t i
n ea ac on a l s u b s t i Inv ri na n t r l prin ipl
a ce a s ce
9 a c e,

t u t ion s , 9 3 In ri n t bgr p 8 5 8 9
va a su ou , ,

G r p f r t i l mb r
ou o a on a nu e s, 83 In ri nt f p ri n 5 8
va a s o ex e e ce ,

Gr p f r t t i
ou 89
o o a on s , In ri nt f gr p 4 5 8 5 8 9
va a s o ou s, , ,

G r p f g m t ri ry t l
ou s o eo e c c s a s, 1 33 In ri n t f m t h m t i 4
va a s o a e a cs , 1 0

In ri n t f q nt i 3 7
va a s o ua cs , 1
H d m rd
a a94 ; r f r
a ,
1 e e en ce , 29 ,
In r i n 5
ve s o 1 2
,

I nv r i n
e s o n t r l prin ipl 9 a s ce a c e,
Ha l s t e d :q uot e d , 3 4, 4 2 ; rfr
e e I rr t i n l n mb r
a o a u e s, 2 1
en ce , 46 I m rp h i m 5
so o s 2
Ha mil t on ,
1 1 0, 1 1 2, 1 1 7; rfr
e e I m rph i m f q uin t i nd
so o s
,

o c a
e n ce , 1 1 0
s ph ri e ca l ri gl
t an es , 54
r
Ha mon c a t o 5 8 i r i
66 ; r f r
,

z
Hel mh ol t 1 9 4 ; q u ot e 2 4 d Jev ons 5 e e en ce
, , ,
66, 1 25

Hera cl eit os , 4 8 1 8 2
, ,

y
Jol 1 1 1 ,

r i
He m t e , 1 7 4 , 1 7 9
,

rd r
Jo a n cu v e 1 5 3 ,

r
He s ch el q u ot e , 1 3 9 ,
d rd i
Jou a n q u ot e 7 5 ,
d ,

Het er omeq u e nu m e 1 7 br , K a nt . 4 , 43 , 1 63 , 1 8 7, 1 92
br
Hil e t , q u ot e , 6 1 4 8 ; efe d ,
r r K a s n er , rfr e e en ce , 46
en c e, 96 K l i q t d 98
e v n, uo e
i r r
H n t on efe en ce , 4 5
, K mp 3 3 ; q t d 7 3 ;
e e, 1
,

uo e 1 2 1 1
i ry br
H s t o of n u m e , 1 3 rfr e e en ce ,
35 1
, ,

b d
Ho s on 1 9 4 ; q u ot e, ,
1 8, 1 26,
K y r :q t d 43 6 9 5 ;
e se uo e 1 0, 1 1 1

7 ; r f r
, , ,

1 0 8 e e en ce , 0
rfr 53 6
e e en ce , 1 2 ,8 95 1 0, 1
Hyp t i 3 6
, ,

a a,
Kl i 5 4 9 3 7 3 ; q t d 3
e n, , ,
I uo e ,
2.

73 ; r f r
Hy p ern umb er 97
,
9 0, 1 46 e e en ce ,

I h dr l gr p 9
Kr k r 7 4 9 4 ; q t d 5
onec e 1 ,
1 uo e ,
1
cos a

I i ng m
e a ou ,
0
K k r
r on ec gr 8 e s con u en ce s , I
cos a

Id l n mb r
ea u
a e, 1 1 2

e s, 1 0
K mm r 3 49 9 4
u e ,
10 ,
1 ,
1
3
I m gi ry n mb r
a na u e s, 1 0 1 ,
1 08 L gr g 9
a an 94 74 e, 0, 1

Im gin ry t im i
,

a a -
e ax s, 2 L V llé P
a a i rfr e- 6 ou s s n , e e en ce , 2

Imprimi t ivity 5
,

,
2 28

In mm n u r bl in
co e s a e v en t e d ,
21 La w of con t a r di ti c on , 66
 04 Philos op hy of Ma thema tics
L w f
a o l d d middl 66
exc u M e i g f mb r 8 e, ea n n o nu e ,

L w
a f l gi 65
s o o c,M ig f prtr 9 ea n n o o e a o ,

L b g
e 6
es u e , 2 7 , M 1 i g f phil phy f m th
2 ea n n o os o o a e

L ib iz 6 5 9 4
e n ,
8 87 9 ,
m ti ,6 10 ,
1 ,
1 2 a es ,

Li 3 8 4 5 9
e, , 9 ; q t d
, 36 M
0, i g f pr 1 9 uo e ,
1 , ea n n o oces s ,

38
1 M i g f pr p iti 9 ea n n o o os on ,

Li ne g m t ry 3 8
eo e M i g f y t m fi f r
, 9 ea n n o s s e o n e ence ,

Li ne o f z r di t e o 3 M r f t 6
s a n ces , ea s u e o a se ,
2

Li r
n ea i t i l g br 3
a s soc a M er y 3 ve a e a, 1 1 a ,
2

L b t h
o a c ki g m t ry 3 4 M th d f m th m ti 4
ev s an eo e , ,
2, e o s o a e a cs , ,
1 1

M y r r f r 4 e e ,
e e en ce , 1 1

L b t h
o a c ky 4 4 3 ev s M ilh d :q t d 5 8 8 8 ;
,
2, f au uo e ,
1 ,
1 re

L gi
o f l
c o 6 c a s ses , r 5 4 68 2 85 e en ce , 1 ,
1 ,
1

L gi
o f pr p it i
c o 67 o M ill 3 5
os on s , ,

L gi
o f r l ti
c o 68 e a M ill r r f r
v es , 96 e ,
e e en ce ,

L gi l
o ca t t f B l
c on s a n s o 65 M i k w ki 3 3 7 4 6 ; q t d 8 oo e , n o s ,
2, , ,
uo e ,
1

L gi t i 6
o s c, 1 M d l r g m t ri 37 o u a eo e es , 1

L gi t i d fi i t i
o s c f e d 7n M d l r gr p 9 on o I an 2, 1 o u a ou ,
2

L u ca s ,rfr 6 8
e e en c e , M d l r t h ry f f rm 0, 1 1 37 o u a eo o o s, 1

M g r f r
M f rl rfr 44 on e , e e en ce ,

M h:
ac a a ne ,

t d 4 ; r f r
6
M g i
e e en ce , 1 1
l yt i f on o en c n on-a n a c u nc

ti
ac q uo e 46 ,
83
1 e e en ce ,

M M h :q t d 4 7
on , 1
36 ; M t q i
ac a on uo e 1
8 , ,

rfre e ence , 5 6
M r :q t d 5 4 ; r f r
0, 0
on es u eu , 1 1

M gi q r
oo e uo e ,
e e ence ,
a c s 4 7 49 s
u a es , , ,
o

M i g rfr
a nn n , 46 M l t ipl i t rpr t t i
e e en ce ,

M th m t i
53 u e n e e a on s ,

M rphy r f r
a e da t 94cs a n ar ,
1

M th m t i br h f My t i pr p rti f 95 u ,
e e en ce ,
a e a cs as a a nc o
6
phy i 5 4 s cs , 1
s c o e es o 1 0, 1

M th m t i
a e af rm f r t i
cs a s a N dim i l g m t ry 3 8
o o c ea ve -
en s ona eo e ,

l ti
ev o u 66 on , 1 N g ti mb r 6 e a v e nu e s, 1 0 1 ,
10

M th m t i
a e p y h l gy 63 N il f t i l hy p mb
a cs a s s c 3o o ,
1 a c or a ernu ers , 1 1

M th m t i
a e at dy f i r Nil p t t hy p mb
cs a s s u 3 o u n ve o en ernu er s , 1 1

l
sa s , 16 0 N th r q t d 78 oe e ,
uo e ,
1

M t ri
a 4
ces , 1 1 N Ar him d ti i ty on - c e ea n con nu ,

M a xw el l ,
1 1 82
M ea n n i g of a rr g m an e en t s , 9 N on d enume
-
r bil ity
a of ir ra t ion
M ea n n i g o f fig r 8 u e, al s, 25

M ea n n i g of h y p ernumb ers , 9 N on -
diff r ti bl f t i
e en a e unc on , 3
M ea n n i g of ma t hema t cs , 6 i Non-
E l id
uc g mty4 ea n eo e r ,
1, 157
206 Philos ophy of Ma thema tics
S t i m tz
e n 9 e ,
Tr th i m th m ti 5 6
10 u n a e a cs ,

S t if le 6 ,
10 T r th l 7 u -
va ue, 2

Syl l gi m 6 6 6 7
S yl
o

t r 78
s

t d
,

69
U i f,
r m rg 64 n o con v e ence , 1

i f rmiz t i ri b
ve s e 94 ; q 1 1 uo e 1

84
,
U ,
f l 7
, ,
n o a on o va a es , 1 1

i t fr t i
1

S ymb l i l gi 6
U 9 n ac on s , 1
o

S ymm t ri r l t ie
c

69 c
o
U i c,

e a
r l i w f g m t ry 3 4
1

on ,
n ve s a s V e o eo e ,

S y t h t i g m t ry 3 7
n e c V d m d
eo e 1
an er on e, 0
9 ,

Vl k r f r
T ti 4 7 V 8 an ec ,
e e en ce, 2

V t r fi ld
ac c,

T it 44 ec o e s, 1

V t r 97
a ,
1 1 1

T t r h dr l gr p 8 9 ec o s ,

V r
e a e a ou ,

Th l 3 5 3 5 e one se ,

V l t rr r r
a es ,

Th ry f q t i 9 ; f 9 o e a, 1 1 e e en ce , 1 2 , 2
48
,
eo o 35 e ua on s , 1 ,
1

Th ry f i f r
eo o
5 3
n e en ce, 1 2 2
1

Th m o J J 47
s on ,
Wb r r f r
. .
,

T t l d iff r t i l q t i i W i r t r 5 e e ,
e e en ce , 1
o a e en a e ua on n
46 8
phy i 9 3 57 ass, 1 1 1 1 2
e e s , , , ,
1
s cs , 1
W 0
l 8
mb r
es se ,
10

Wh w l l q t d 7
T ra n s fi it n 7 8 e nu e s, 2 ,
1 2

Tr f rm t i gr p 4 5
e e ,
uo e ,
1 2
a ns o
Wh i t h d 6 9 ; r f r
a on ou s,
8
Tr f rm t i
e ea ,
e e en ce , 1 0
a ns o 45 a
Wh i t h d
on s , 1
d R ll r f r e ea an u ss e ,
e e
T ra n s in t u it ion , 1 49

Tr n i t i r l t i n 6 9
en ce , 1 2 5

Wil czyn s ki q uot ed 3 8

a s ve e a o ,

T r n i t i vi t y 5
a s ,
2
Win t er 1 49 ; reference
, ,

Tr n mut t i n 3 4 , ,
1 3, 29

Worl d of un ivers a l s 7 4
a s a o s, 1 ,
1 45

Tr 48 5
ees , ,
1
,

Tripl y t m 5 e s s e s, 1 Yggdr a s il , 4, 1 87