Subject: Re: [HM] Mathematics and Time
From: Brendan Larvor (B.P.Larvor@herts.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Mar 10 2000 - 10:31:31 EST
JJ Sylvester took part in a dispute about the proper interpretation of
Kant on space and time in 1869. So Hamilton was not alone among
English-speaking mathematicians of the period in reading Kant (though he
seems to have got a lot more out of it than JJS). Also it is clear that
Kant's doctrines were not well understood--learned contributers to this
dispute made mistakes that would be regarded as undergraduate howlers now.
Kant thought that humans cannot understand completed infinities, so it is
no wonder that few mathematicians bothered with him in the C20, except
Brouwer.
=========================
Dr. Brendan Larvor
University of Hertfordshire
(01707) 28-5659
http://www.herts.ac.uk/humanities/philosophy/bl.html
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