Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Historical remarks on Suslin's problem
- The continuum hypothesis, the generic-multiverse of sets, and the Ω conjecture
- ω-models of finite set theory
- Tennenbaum's theorem for models of arithmetic
- Hierarchies of subsystems of weak arithmetic
- Diophantine correct open induction
- Tennenbaum's theorem and recursive reducts
- History of constructivism in the 20th century
- A very short history of ultrafinitism
- Sue Toledo's notes of her conversations with Gödel in 1972–5
- Stanley Tennenbaum's Socrates
- Tennenbaum's proof of the irrationality of √2
- References
A very short history of ultrafinitism
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Historical remarks on Suslin's problem
- The continuum hypothesis, the generic-multiverse of sets, and the Ω conjecture
- ω-models of finite set theory
- Tennenbaum's theorem for models of arithmetic
- Hierarchies of subsystems of weak arithmetic
- Diophantine correct open induction
- Tennenbaum's theorem and recursive reducts
- History of constructivism in the 20th century
- A very short history of ultrafinitism
- Sue Toledo's notes of her conversations with Gödel in 1972–5
- Stanley Tennenbaum's Socrates
- Tennenbaum's proof of the irrationality of √2
- References
Summary
To the memory of our unforgettable friend Stanley Tennenbaum (1927-2005), Mathematician, Educator, Free Spirit.
In this first of a series of papers on ultrafinitistic themes, we offer a short history and a conceptual pre-history of ultrafinistism. While the ancient Greeks did not have a theory of the ultrafinite, they did have two words, murios and apeiron, that express an awareness of crucial and often underemphasized features of the ultrafinite, viz. feasibility, and transcendence of limits within a context. We trace the flowering of these insights in the work of Van Dantzig, Parikh, Nelson and others, concluding with a summary of requirements which we think a satisfactory general theory of the ultrafinite should satisfy.
First papers often tend to take on the character of manifestos, road maps, or both, and this one is no exception. It is the revised version of an invited conference talk, and was aimed at a general audience of philosophers, logicians, computer scientists, and mathematicians. It is therefore not meant to be a detailed investigation. Rather, some proposals are advanced, and questions raised, which will be explored in subsequent works of the series.
Our chief hope is that readers will find the overall flavor somewhat “Tennenbaumian”.
§1. Introduction: The radical Wing of constructivism. In their Constructivism in Mathematics, A. Troelstra and D. Van Dalen dedicate only a small section to Ultrafinitism (UF in the following). This is no accident: as they themselves explain therein, there is no consistent model theory for ultrafinitistic mathematics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Set Theory, Arithmetic, and Foundations of MathematicsTheorems, Philosophies, pp. 180 - 199Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011