Related papers: To found or not to found: that is the question
A proof is one of the most important concepts of mathematics. However, there is a striking difference between how a proof is defined in theory and how it is used in practice. This puts the unique status of mathematics as exact science into…
The chapter advances a reformulation of the classical problem of the nature of mathematical objects (if any), here called "Plato's problem," in line with the program of a philosophy of mathematical practice. It then provides a sketch of a…
This paper looks at how ancient mathematicians (and especially the Pythagorean school) were faced by problems/paradoxes associated with the infinite which led them to juggle two systems of numbers: the discrete whole/rationals which were…
Since a few years, the Schr\"odinger problem captures the attention of a growing community of mathematicians interested in optimal transport problems. The first result of existence of a solution to this problem dates back to 1940, when…
This paper argues that, insofar as we doubt the bivalence of the Continuum Hypothesis or the truth of the Axiom of Choice, we should also doubt the consistency of third-order arithmetic, both the classical and intuitionistic versions.…
Challenges to classical logic have emerged from several sources. According to recent work, the behavior of epistemic modals in natural language motivates weakening classical logic to orthologic, a logic originally discovered by Birkhoff and…
The main aim of the present work is to arrive at a mathematical theory close to the historically original conception of generalized functions, i.e. set theoretical functions defined on, and with values in, a suitable ring of scalars and…
Proof Theory and Type Theory are two branches of mathematical logic and theoretical computer science that explore the structure of mathematical proofs and the foundations of computation. Both are crucial for understanding formal systems,…
Issai Schur, in his doctoral thesis (1901) introduced the Schur algebra to study the polynomial representation theory of the general linear group. He described a basis of this algebra and structure constants. Later, Miguel Mendez (2001)…
Georg Cantor was the genuine discoverer of the Mathematical Infinity, and whatever he claimed, suggested, or even surmised should be taken seriously -- albeit not necessary at its face value. Because alongside his exquisite in beauty…
This work is motivated by problems on simultaneous Diophantine approximation on manifolds, namely, establishing Khintchine and Jarnik type theorems for submanifolds of R^n. These problems have attracted a lot of interest since Kleinbock and…
The purpose of this essay is to bring out the unique role of Mathematics in providing a base to the diverse sciences which conform to its rigid structure. Of these the physical and economic sciences are so intimately linked with…
I offer a revisionist interpretation of Galileo's role in the history of science. My overarching thesis is that Galileo lacked technical ability in mathematics, and that this can be seen as directly explaining numerous aspects of his life's…
We introduce the notion of scale to generalize and compare different invariants of metric spaces and their measures. Several versions of scales are introduced such as Hausdorff, packing, box, local and quantization. They moreover are…
When people mention the mathematical achievements of Euclid, his geometrical achievements always spring to mind. But, his Number-Theoretical achievements (See Books 7, 8 and 9 in his magnum opus \emph{Elements} [1]) are rarely spoken. The…
Karl Pearson is the leading figure of XX century statistics. He and his co-workers crafted the core of the theory, methods and language of frequentist or classical statistics -- the prevalent inductive logic of contemporary science.…
This history of the concept of fact reveals that the fact-oriented practices of German physicists and historians derived from common origins. The concept of fact became part of the German language remarkably late. It gained momentum only…
Using the framework of pastures and foundations of matroids developed by Baker-Lorscheid, we give algorithms to: (i) compute the foundation of a matroid, and (ii) compute all morphisms between two pastures. Together, these provide an…
The Schr\"oder-Bernstein theorem states that, for any two sets P and Q, if there exists an injection from P to Q and an injection from Q to P, then there must exist a bijection between the two sets. Classically, it follows that the ordering…
We describe and explain the desire, common among mathematicians, both for unity and independence in its major themes. In the dialogue that follows, we express our spontaneous and considered judgment and reservations by contrasting the…