A Sociologist dips into the Foundations of Mathematics: The Case of A. F. Bentley

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Date: 22/01/2024

Time: 16h45 - 18h15

Meetings are usually held on Mondays from 16:45 to 18:15 in Raum 3F (D0313), 3. floor Department of Philosophy

Abstract:

In 1923 the American sociologist Arthur F. Bentley became interested in the work of LEJ Brouwer, whose methodological principle that "the possibility of [further] interpolation must [always] be assumed" Bentley found greatly congenial. From then on until 1932, when he published his subsequent studies in book-form as The Linguistic Analysis of Mathematics, Bentley corresponded and met with many prominent mathematicians of the day, including Brouwer himself, Hermann Weyl and Karl Menger (among others). The position Bentley eventually articulate amounts to a rejection of the very project of providing foundations for mathematics, which he came to see as an effort to provide definite answers where none were available (or, indeed, called for). My aim in this presentation is twofold: First, to illustrate the breadth of Bentley's engagement with the mathematical community during the 1920s, as documented in unpublished letters I have found and studied at various archives; and, second, to present Bentley's position as a typical example of a pragmatist's approach to (the foundations of) mathematics.