Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2022
As the time for preparing these remarks drew nearer, I found myself warming to our assigned topic—“New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics”. What I like about it is the suggestion that the speaker will be pointing in some inspiring style towards a new vista, a new set of problems, a new direction in the field rather than proposing a substantial contribution to the solution to some already well-known difficulty. This image makes me feel less guilty about having no solutions of any sort to offer today. What I do have is a problem to pose, a problem that seems to me quite serious. If it isn't completely new, I can at least say truly that it hasn't received the attention that it deserves, that it is far from solved, and that it has become more pressing in recent years.
My thanks go to John Burgess for introducing me to the topics covered in this paper. I have benefitted more recently from correspondence and conversations with D. A. Martin and Yiannis Moschovakis. The support of an NEH summer grant in 1984 is also gratefully acknowledged.