When mathematician Hermann Weyl decided to write a book on philosophy, he faced what he referred to as "conflicts of conscience"--the objective nature of science, he felt, did not mesh easily with the incredulous, uncertain nature of philosophy. Yet the two disciplines were already intertwined. In Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science, Weyl examines how advances in philosophy were led by scientific discoveries--the more humankind understood about the physical world, the more curious we became. The book is divided into two parts, one on mathematics and the other on the physical sciences. Drawing on work by Descartes, Galileo, Hume, Kant, Leibniz, and Newton, Weyl provides readers with a guide to understanding science through the lens of philosophy. This is a book that no one but Weyl could have written--and, indeed, no one has written anything quite like it since.
- ISBN10 0691141207
- ISBN13 9780691141206
- Publish Date 17 May 2009 (first published 21 March 1958)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Princeton University Press
- Edition Revised edition
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 336
- Language English
- URL https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8960.html