A Burgessian critique of nominalistic tendencies in contemporary mathematics and its historiography

Abstract

We analyze the developments in mathematical rigor from the viewpoint of a Burgessian critique of nominalistic reconstructions. We apply such a critique to the reconstruction of infinitesimal analysis accomplished through the efforts of Cantor, Dedekind, and Weierstrass; to the reconstruction of Cauchy's foundational work associated with the work of Boyer and Grabiner; and to Bishop's constructivist reconstruction of classical analysis. We examine the effects of a nominalist disposition on historiography, teaching, and research.

57 pages; 3 figures. Corrected misprints

References in corpus (2)

• Cauchy's continuum
• Infinitesimals without Logic

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