Foundations Of Constructive Mathematics

This book is about some recent work in a subject usually considered part of "logic" and the" foundations of mathematics", but also having close connec tions with philosophy and computer science. Namely, the creation and study of "formal systems for constructive mathematics". The general organization of the book is described in the" User's Manual" which follows this introduction, and the contents of the book are described in more detail in the introductions to Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four. This introduction has a different purpose; it is intended to provide the reader with a general view of the subject. This requires, to begin with, an elucidation of both the concepts mentioned in the phrase, "formal systems for constructive mathematics". "Con structive mathematics" refers to mathematics in which, when you prove that l a thing exists (having certain desired properties) you show how to find it. Proof by contradiction is the most common way of proving something exists without showing how to find it - one assumes that nothing exists with the desired properties, and derives a contradiction. It was only in the last two decades of the nineteenth century that mathematicians began to exploit this method of proof in ways that nobody had previously done; that was partly made possible by the creation and development of set theory by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind.

The book "Foundational Theories of Classical and Constructive Mathematics" is a book on the classical topic of foundations of mathematics. Its originality resides mainly in its treating at the same time foundations of classical and foundations of constructive mathematics. This confrontation of two kinds of foundations contributes to answering questions such as: Are foundations/foundational theories of classical mathematics of a different nature compared to those of constructive mathematics? Do they play the same role for the resp. mathematics? Are there connections between the two kinds of foundational theories? etc. The confrontation and comparison is often implicit and sometimes explicit. Its great advantage is to extend the traditional discussion of the foundations of mathematics and to render it at the same time more subtle and more differentiated. Another important aspect of the book is that some of its contributions are of a more philosophical, others of a more technical nature. This double face is emphasized, since foundations of mathematics is an eminent topic in the philosophy of mathematics: hence both sides of this discipline ought to be and are being paid due to.

This book provides a systematic and general theory of probability within the framework of constructive mathematics.

A survey of constructive approaches to pure mathematics emphasizing the viewpoint of Errett Bishop's school. Considers intuitionism, Russian constructivism, and recursive analysis, with comparisons among the various approaches included where appropriate.

This work grew out of Errett Bishop's fundamental treatise 'Founda tions of Constructive Analysis' (FCA), which appeared in 1967 and which contained the bountiful harvest of a remarkably short period of research by its author. Truly, FCA was an exceptional book, not only because of the quantity of original material it contained, but also as a demonstration of the practicability of a program which most ma thematicians believed impossible to carry out. Errett's book went out of print shortly after its publication, and no second edition was produced by its publishers. Some years later, 'by a set of curious chances', it was agreed that a new edition of FCA would be published by Springer Verlag, the revision being carried out by me under Errett's supervision; at the same time, Errett gener ously insisted that I become a joint author. The revision turned out to be much more substantial than we had anticipated, and took longer than we would have wished. Indeed, tragically, Errett died before the work was completed. The present book is the result of our efforts. Although substantially based on FCA, it contains so much new material, and such full revision and expansion of the old, that it is essentially a new book. For this reason, and also to preserve the integrity of the original, I decided to give our joint work a title of its own. Most of the new material outside Chapter 5 originated with Errett.

This book, Foundations of Constructive Analysis, founded the field of constructive analysis because it proved most of the important theorems in real analysis by constructive methods. The author, Errett Albert Bishop, born July 10, 1928, was an American mathematician known for his work on analysis. In the later part of his life Bishop was seen as the leading mathematician in the area of Constructive mathematics. From 1965 until his death, he was professor at the University of California at San Diego.

Bridging the foundations and practice of constructive mathematics, this text focusses on the contrast between the theoretical developments - which have been most useful for computer science - and more specific efforts on constructive analysis, algebra and topology.