Weyl's Appropriation of Husserl's and Poincaré's Thought

Author: Feist R.¹

Source: Synthese, Volume 132, Number 3, September 2002 , pp. 273-301(29)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

This article locates Weyl's philosophy of mathematics and its relationship to his philosophy of science within the epistemological and ontological framework of Husserl's phenomenology as expressed in the Logical Investigations and Ideas. This interpretation permits a unified reading of Weyl's scattered philosophical comments in The Continuum and Space-Time-Matter. But the article also indicates that Weyl employed Poincaré's predicativist concerns to modify Husserl's semantics and trim Husserl's ontology. Using Poincaré's razor to shave Husserl's beard leads to limitations on the least upper bound theorem in the foundations of analysis and Dirichlet's principle in the foundations of physics. Finally, the article opens the possibility of reading Weyl as a systematic thinker, that he follows Husserl's so-called transcendental turn in the Ideas. This permits an even more unified reading of Weyl's scattered philosophical comments.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: The University of Ottawa 70 Laurier Avenue K1N 6N6 Canada

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