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Philosophy of Mathematics Today pp 39–50Cite as

From Certainty to Fallibility in Mathematics?

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Part of the book series: Episteme ((EPIS,volume 22))

Abstract

The title of this paper was borrowed from the heading of a chapter in Davis and Hersh’s celebrated book The mathematical experience.1 Here, however, we have inserted a question-mark: is it really true, as some people maintain, that mathematics has lost its certainty? For the sake of simplicity, we refer to this conception as mathematical fallibilism which is a feature of the quasi-empiricism initiated by Lakatos and popularized by Davis and Hersh, Kline, Tymoczko and many others. In this paper we would like to make a critical survey of this viewpoint which constitutes an interesting trend in philosophy of mathematics today.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mathematics, University of Genoa, Italy

    Marco Borga

Authors
  1. Marco Borga
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Fribourg, Switzerland

    Evandro Agazzi (President of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science) (President of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science)

  2. University of Genova, Italy

    Evandro Agazzi (President of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science) (President of the Swiss Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science)

  3. Symmetrion — The Institute for Advanced Symmetry Studies, Budapest, Hungary

    György Darvas

  4. The Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    György Darvas

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Borga, M. (1997). From Certainty to Fallibility in Mathematics?. In: Agazzi, E., Darvas, G. (eds) Philosophy of Mathematics Today. Episteme, vol 22. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5690-5_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5690-5_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6400-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5690-5

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