Substance and Function & Einstein's Theory of Relativity PDF - إرنست كاسيرر

PREFACE The investigations contained in this volume were first prompted by studies in the philosophy of mathematics. In the course of an attempt to compreheud the fundamental conceptjons of mathcmu.tics from the point of view of logic, it became necessary to analyse more closely the function of the concept itself and to trace it back to its presuppositions. Here, however, a peculiar difficulty arose: the traditional logic of the concept, in its ,yell-known features, proved inadequate even to characterize the problems to which the theory of the principles of mathematics led. It became increasingly evident that exact science had here reached questions for which there existed no precise correlate in the traditionnllanguage of formal logic. The content of mathematical knowledge point.ed back to a fundamental form of the concept not clearly defined and recognized ,,,'ithin logic it.self. In part.icular, hlVestigations conccmiug the concepts of the series and of the limit,