more from Stewart Shapiro

Single Idea 13664

[catalogued under 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / c. Neo-logicism]

Full Idea

It is claimed that aiming at a universal language for all contexts, and the thesis that logic does not involve a process of abstraction, separates the logicists from algebraists and mathematicians, and also from modern model theory.

Gist of Idea

Logicism is distinctive in seeking a universal language, and denying that logic is a series of abstractions

Source

Stewart Shapiro (Foundations without Foundationalism [1991], 7.1)

Book Reference

Shapiro,Stewart: 'Foundations without Foundationalism' [OUP 1991], p.176


A Reaction

I am intuitively drawn to the idea that logic is essentially the result of a series of abstractions, so this gives me a further reason not to be a logicist. Shapiro cites Goldfarb 1979 and van Heijenoort 1967. Logicists reduce abstraction to logic.