Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series)

Berkeley's Philosophy of Mathematics (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series) by Jesseph, Douglas M.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780226398983.

In this first modern, critical assessment of the place of mathematics in Berkeleys philosophy and Berkeleys place in the history of mathematics, Douglas M. Jesseph provides a bold reinterpretation of Berkeleys work. Jesseph challenges the prevailing view that Berkeleys mathematical writings are peripheral to his philosophy and argues that mathematics is in fact central to his thought, developing out of his critique of abstraction. Jessephs argument situates Berkeleys ideas within the larger historical and intellectual context of the Scientific Revolution. Jesseph begins with Berkeleys radical opposition to the received view of mathematics in the philosophy of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when mathematics was considered a "science of abstractions." Since this view seriously conflicted with Berkeleys critique of abstract ideas, Jesseph contends that he was forced to come up with a nonabstract philosophy of mathematics. Jesseph examines Berkeleys unique treatments of geometry and arithmetic and his famous critique of the calculus in The Analyst. By putting Berkeleys mathematical writings in the perspective of his larger philosophical project and examining their impact on eighteenth-century British mathematics, Jesseph makes a major contribution to philosophy and to the history and philosophy of science.