{"product_id":"9789048183579","title":"Mechanism, Mentalism and Metamathematics: An Essay on Finitism","description":"\u003ch1\u003eMechanism, Mentalism and Metamathematics: An Essay on Finitism\u003c\/h1\u003e \u003ch2\u003eWebb, J.\u003c\/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis book grew out of a graduate student paper [261] in which I set down some criticisms of J. R. Lucas' attempt to refute mechanism by means of G6del's theorem. I had made several such abortive attempts myself and had become familiar with their pitfalls, and especially with the double­ edged nature of incompleteness arguments. My original idea was to model the refutation of mechanism on the almost universally accepted G6delian refutation of Hilbert's formalism, but I kept getting stuck on questions of mathematical philosophy which I found myself having to beg. A thorough study of the foundational works of Hilbert and Bernays finally convinced me that I had all too naively and uncritically bought this refutation of formalism. I did indeed discover points of surprisingly close contact between formalism and mechanism, but also that it was possible to under­ mine certain strong arguments against these positions precisely by invok­ ing G6del's and related work. I also began to realize that the Church­ Turing thesis itself is the principal bastion protecting mechanism, and that G6del's work was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to both mechanism and formalism. I pushed these lines of argument in my dis­ sertation with the patient help of my readers, Raymond Nelson and Howard Stein. I would especially like to thank the latter for many valuable criticisms of my dissertation as well as some helpful suggestions for reor­ ganizing it in the direction of the present book.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ch3\u003eDetails\u003c\/h3\u003e \u003cp\u003ePublished by: Springer\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePublication Date: 2010-12-30\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eISBN-13: 9789048183579\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDOI: 10.1007\/978-94-015-7653-6\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDimensions: 229.0cm x152.0cm\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePages: 285.0\u003c\/p\u003e ","brand":"Springer Netherlands","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44450440085644,"sku":"9789048183579","price":152.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0710\/9545\/1788\/files\/9789048183579.jpg?v=1766024642","url":"https:\/\/lateknightbooks.com\/products\/9789048183579","provider":"Late Knight Books and Services, LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}