Palombi The Star and the Whole

Gian-Carlo Rota on Mathematics and Phenomenology
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4398-7352-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 138 Seiten

The Star and the Whole: Gian-Carlo Rota on Mathematics and Phenomenology, authored by Fabrizio Palombi, is the first book to study Rota’s philosophical reflection. Rota (1932–1999) was a leading figure in contemporary mathematics and an outstanding philosopher, inspired by phenomenology, who made fundamental contributions to combinatorial analysis, and trained several generations of mathematicians in his long career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The first chapter of the book reconstructs Rota’s cultural biography and examines his philosophical style, his criticisms of analytical philosophy, and his reflection on Heidegger’s thought. The second chapter presents a general picture of Rota’s re-elaboration of phenomenology examined in the light of the Husserlian notion of Fundierung. This chapter also illustrates how the star-shape becomes a powerful instrument for understanding the properties of Husserl’s mereology and the critique of objectivism. The third chapter is a theoretical reflection on the nature of mathematical entities, and the fourth examines the complex relation of mathematical research with technological applicability and scientific progress. The foreword of the text is written by Robert Sokolowski.

Zielgruppe

General audience with an interest in mathematics and philosophy or science in general.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Palombi, Fabrizio

Fachgebiete

• Mathematik | Informatik Mathematik Mathematik Allgemein Philosophie der Mathematik
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie der Mathematik, Philosophie der Physik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Wissenschaften: Theorie, Epistemologie, Methodik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Rota, Philosopher
Biographical notes
A philosophical style
Rota and analytic philosophy

A Phenomenological Perspective
The problem of "sense" and the "end of objectivity"
Intentionality and being-in-the-world
Reading and seeing
Fundierung in the Third Logical Investigation
The star, the whole, and the part

Phenomenology and Mathematics
Mathematical writing and Fundierung
The second life of mathematics
Mathematical sciences and natural sciences
"Mathematics is forever"
Historical footsteps
Epoché and the crisis of foundations
Economy

The Value of Mathematics
The "myth of progress"
Intentionality is not a teleology
Teleological aspects of mathematical research
The indirect

Endnotes

Bibliography
Bibliography of Gian-Carlo Rota
General Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Fabrizio Palombi, Professor at the University of Calabria (Italy), was Rota’s collaborator and a Visiting Scholar at MIT. He is the editor of Rota’s philosophical anthologies Pensieri discreti (Garzanti: 1993), Indiscrete Thoughts (Birkhäuser: 1997), and Lezioni Napoletane, (Città del Sole: 1999), and coeditor of the proceedings of an international conference dedicated to Rota, From Combinatorics to Philosophy (Springer: 2009). Palombi is the author of two monographs: Il legame instabile (Franco Angeli: 2002), and Jacques Lacan (Carocci: 2009).