What is the status of the three crises in the history of mathematics?What examples led to the modern definition of a topological space?Division of the circle and compass constructionsWhen did it become understood that irrational numbers have non-repeating decimal representations?Current ways of thinking in the History of MathematicsWhat is the shortest paper in the history of mathematics?Attitude towards mathematics throughout HistoryHistory of Foundation of MathematicsTimeline of mathematical foundation?Math development and under-appreciation of Maxwell's EquationsFoundational crises in non-Western historical mathematical communities

How to handle DM constantly stealing everything from sleeping characters?

Gift for mentor after his thesis defense?

Compactness in normed vector spaces.

Do Monks gain the 9th level Unarmored Movement benefit when wearing armor or using a shield?

What replaces x86 intrinsics for C when Apple ditches Intel CPUs for their own chips?

Are double contractions formal? Eg: "couldn't've" for "could not have"

Is it a good idea to copy a trader when investing?

Why is there a cap on 401k contributions?

How likely are Coriolis-effect-based quirks to develop in starship crew members?

Double underlining a result in a system of equations with calculation steps on the right side

How do carbureted and fuel injected engines compare in high altitude?

Is every story set in the future "science fiction"?

Names of the Six Tastes

Add Columns to .csv from Multiple Files

Is there an idiom that means "revealing a secret unintentionally"?

And now you see it II (the B side)

how to find out if there's files in a folder and exit accordingly (in KSH)

How is it possible for this circuit to continue functioning correctly?

How does weapons training transfer to empty hand?

Examples where existence is harder than evaluation

Company stopped paying my salary. What are my options?

I might have messed up in the 'Future Work' section of my thesis

Why do 3D printers have only one limit switch?

"Estrontium" on poster



What is the status of the three crises in the history of mathematics?


What examples led to the modern definition of a topological space?Division of the circle and compass constructionsWhen did it become understood that irrational numbers have non-repeating decimal representations?Current ways of thinking in the History of MathematicsWhat is the shortest paper in the history of mathematics?Attitude towards mathematics throughout HistoryHistory of Foundation of MathematicsTimeline of mathematical foundation?Math development and under-appreciation of Maxwell's EquationsFoundational crises in non-Western historical mathematical communities













2












$begingroup$


I have seen the claim in some literature that there are three crises in the history of mathematics. The first is the discovery of $sqrt2$ being irrational in Greek time which shook the belief that every point on a line can be measured by a rational number at that time. The second is the infinitesimal used in the 17th century in Calculus by Newton and Leibniz. The third one is Russell's paradox discovered at the turn of the 20th century which has shaken the foundation of mathematics.



However, after goolged it online (in English), I can not find much discussion or support of such claim. So I wonder if this is widely accepted in the history of mathematics, or simply a statement without much merit.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$











  • $begingroup$
    Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
    $endgroup$
    – sand1
    3 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
    $endgroup$
    – Math Wizard
    1 hour ago















2












$begingroup$


I have seen the claim in some literature that there are three crises in the history of mathematics. The first is the discovery of $sqrt2$ being irrational in Greek time which shook the belief that every point on a line can be measured by a rational number at that time. The second is the infinitesimal used in the 17th century in Calculus by Newton and Leibniz. The third one is Russell's paradox discovered at the turn of the 20th century which has shaken the foundation of mathematics.



However, after goolged it online (in English), I can not find much discussion or support of such claim. So I wonder if this is widely accepted in the history of mathematics, or simply a statement without much merit.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$











  • $begingroup$
    Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
    $endgroup$
    – sand1
    3 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
    $endgroup$
    – Math Wizard
    1 hour ago













2












2








2





$begingroup$


I have seen the claim in some literature that there are three crises in the history of mathematics. The first is the discovery of $sqrt2$ being irrational in Greek time which shook the belief that every point on a line can be measured by a rational number at that time. The second is the infinitesimal used in the 17th century in Calculus by Newton and Leibniz. The third one is Russell's paradox discovered at the turn of the 20th century which has shaken the foundation of mathematics.



However, after goolged it online (in English), I can not find much discussion or support of such claim. So I wonder if this is widely accepted in the history of mathematics, or simply a statement without much merit.










share|improve this question











$endgroup$




I have seen the claim in some literature that there are three crises in the history of mathematics. The first is the discovery of $sqrt2$ being irrational in Greek time which shook the belief that every point on a line can be measured by a rational number at that time. The second is the infinitesimal used in the 17th century in Calculus by Newton and Leibniz. The third one is Russell's paradox discovered at the turn of the 20th century which has shaken the foundation of mathematics.



However, after goolged it online (in English), I can not find much discussion or support of such claim. So I wonder if this is widely accepted in the history of mathematics, or simply a statement without much merit.







mathematics terminology






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 2 hours ago









Conifold

35.6k154128




35.6k154128










asked 4 hours ago









Math WizardMath Wizard

32519




32519











  • $begingroup$
    Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
    $endgroup$
    – sand1
    3 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
    $endgroup$
    – Math Wizard
    1 hour ago
















  • $begingroup$
    Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
    $endgroup$
    – sand1
    3 hours ago










  • $begingroup$
    Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
    $endgroup$
    – Math Wizard
    1 hour ago















$begingroup$
Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
$endgroup$
– sand1
3 hours ago




$begingroup$
Goedel's name would be a better candidate for a third crisis, but this is just my opinion; what's more, I do not think Russell's result had much importance in mathematics, it just showed the 'naivete' of early set theory .
$endgroup$
– sand1
3 hours ago












$begingroup$
Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
$endgroup$
– Math Wizard
1 hour ago




$begingroup$
Russell's paradox has a significant impact on the future development of mathematics, i.e. the creation of axiomatic set theories. So it is not just a disproof of naive set theory earlier and definitively has an important impact in mathematics.
$endgroup$
– Math Wizard
1 hour ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















3












$begingroup$

No, it is not widely accepted. The language of "crises" is rather obsolete and mostly reflects the attitudes of the early 20th century projected backwards. At that time, the contemporaries did indeed characterize the situation in mathematics (and physics) as a crisis. For example, Weyl's 1920 address was titled “The new foundational crisis in mathematics”, to which Hilbert saw fit to respond with what is now called the Hilbert program (see van Dalen's paper. But the language fits well with the language of (Kuhnian) revolutions, which are precipitated by "crises" (accumulations of anomalies), and provides a convenient shorthand for undergraduate texts to get through the history expediently. After all, the retellings of history in textbooks largely serve the practical purpose of bringing students up to speed on the current mathematics, and this is easier to do by translating all of mathematics into modern terminology, and marking the places where major curriculum pieces were introduced as "crises".



The first "crisis" is almost completely made up based on discredited accounts of the early Pythagorean history. The rational numbers or the real line are sheer modernizations with little relation to the ancient Greece, and even the story of ratios and incommensurables is a dramatized fable. On early Greek mathematics a good source is Fowler's Mathematics of Plato's Academy. Concerning the traditional story about the "discovery of irrationals" and the subsequent "crisis", a reviewer writes:




"It may be somewhat surprising, then, to discover that many, if not most, historians of ancient mathematics disbelieve some or all of this story. In The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, David Fowler gives a convincing account of the reasons for rejecting the standard story, and offers a very interesting alternative reconstruction of the history of early Greek mathematics... One of the important themes in Fowler's book is that one must carefully assess the available sources on early Greek mathematics. He demonstrates that most of the elements of the "standard story" either come from very late Greek sources (500 years or more after the time of Plato) or are reconstructions by modern historians who are really reflecting nineteenth and twentieth century concerns about foundational issues... The resulting picture is quite different from the traditional one. In particular, incommensurability is seen not as a foundational crisis but rather as an interesting discovery that led to significant mathematics."




The second "crisis" is usually associated not with the creation of calculus but with its subsequent problems, such as the inconsistencies with infinitesimals. It was a pretty slow moving "crisis" though, and the kinematic (late Newtonian) conception calculus, within which Cauchy worked, and most of algebraic analysis of 18th century were not seen as having some cardinal problems at the time. Only injecting later foundational attitudes and concerns about rigor lets one detect them. Another potential crisis, with a better claim to the name (in the Kuhnian sense at least), were the struggles with the notion of function that followed the discovery of Fourier series, see the introductory chapters to Bressoud's Radical Approach to Real Analysis, who names his opening chapter Crisis in Mathematics: Fourier's Series.






share|improve this answer









$endgroup$




















    1












    $begingroup$

    These notions were popular in the middle of 20th century, in the aftermath of the third crisis. More precisely they were called the "crises of foundations of mathematics". Of course the first two were essentially the reconstructions of historians of mathematics.



    Mathematics was conceived as a rigorous method of obtaining true statements by proofs. The starting point was a set of premises which were considered self-evident without any doubt. This basic believe was seriously shaken several times in the course of history,
    and the principal such episodes are called "crises of foundations". You can read about this in the middle 20th century histories of mathematics.






    share|improve this answer









    $endgroup$













      Your Answer








      StackExchange.ready(function()
      var channelOptions =
      tags: "".split(" "),
      id: "587"
      ;
      initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

      StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
      // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
      if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
      StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
      createEditor();
      );

      else
      createEditor();

      );

      function createEditor()
      StackExchange.prepareEditor(
      heartbeatType: 'answer',
      autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
      convertImagesToLinks: false,
      noModals: true,
      showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
      reputationToPostImages: null,
      bindNavPrevention: true,
      postfix: "",
      imageUploader:
      brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
      contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
      allowUrls: true
      ,
      noCode: true, onDemand: true,
      discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
      ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
      );



      );













      draft saved

      draft discarded


















      StackExchange.ready(
      function ()
      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhsm.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f9575%2fwhat-is-the-status-of-the-three-crises-in-the-history-of-mathematics%23new-answer', 'question_page');

      );

      Post as a guest















      Required, but never shown

























      2 Answers
      2






      active

      oldest

      votes








      2 Answers
      2






      active

      oldest

      votes









      active

      oldest

      votes






      active

      oldest

      votes









      3












      $begingroup$

      No, it is not widely accepted. The language of "crises" is rather obsolete and mostly reflects the attitudes of the early 20th century projected backwards. At that time, the contemporaries did indeed characterize the situation in mathematics (and physics) as a crisis. For example, Weyl's 1920 address was titled “The new foundational crisis in mathematics”, to which Hilbert saw fit to respond with what is now called the Hilbert program (see van Dalen's paper. But the language fits well with the language of (Kuhnian) revolutions, which are precipitated by "crises" (accumulations of anomalies), and provides a convenient shorthand for undergraduate texts to get through the history expediently. After all, the retellings of history in textbooks largely serve the practical purpose of bringing students up to speed on the current mathematics, and this is easier to do by translating all of mathematics into modern terminology, and marking the places where major curriculum pieces were introduced as "crises".



      The first "crisis" is almost completely made up based on discredited accounts of the early Pythagorean history. The rational numbers or the real line are sheer modernizations with little relation to the ancient Greece, and even the story of ratios and incommensurables is a dramatized fable. On early Greek mathematics a good source is Fowler's Mathematics of Plato's Academy. Concerning the traditional story about the "discovery of irrationals" and the subsequent "crisis", a reviewer writes:




      "It may be somewhat surprising, then, to discover that many, if not most, historians of ancient mathematics disbelieve some or all of this story. In The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, David Fowler gives a convincing account of the reasons for rejecting the standard story, and offers a very interesting alternative reconstruction of the history of early Greek mathematics... One of the important themes in Fowler's book is that one must carefully assess the available sources on early Greek mathematics. He demonstrates that most of the elements of the "standard story" either come from very late Greek sources (500 years or more after the time of Plato) or are reconstructions by modern historians who are really reflecting nineteenth and twentieth century concerns about foundational issues... The resulting picture is quite different from the traditional one. In particular, incommensurability is seen not as a foundational crisis but rather as an interesting discovery that led to significant mathematics."




      The second "crisis" is usually associated not with the creation of calculus but with its subsequent problems, such as the inconsistencies with infinitesimals. It was a pretty slow moving "crisis" though, and the kinematic (late Newtonian) conception calculus, within which Cauchy worked, and most of algebraic analysis of 18th century were not seen as having some cardinal problems at the time. Only injecting later foundational attitudes and concerns about rigor lets one detect them. Another potential crisis, with a better claim to the name (in the Kuhnian sense at least), were the struggles with the notion of function that followed the discovery of Fourier series, see the introductory chapters to Bressoud's Radical Approach to Real Analysis, who names his opening chapter Crisis in Mathematics: Fourier's Series.






      share|improve this answer









      $endgroup$

















        3












        $begingroup$

        No, it is not widely accepted. The language of "crises" is rather obsolete and mostly reflects the attitudes of the early 20th century projected backwards. At that time, the contemporaries did indeed characterize the situation in mathematics (and physics) as a crisis. For example, Weyl's 1920 address was titled “The new foundational crisis in mathematics”, to which Hilbert saw fit to respond with what is now called the Hilbert program (see van Dalen's paper. But the language fits well with the language of (Kuhnian) revolutions, which are precipitated by "crises" (accumulations of anomalies), and provides a convenient shorthand for undergraduate texts to get through the history expediently. After all, the retellings of history in textbooks largely serve the practical purpose of bringing students up to speed on the current mathematics, and this is easier to do by translating all of mathematics into modern terminology, and marking the places where major curriculum pieces were introduced as "crises".



        The first "crisis" is almost completely made up based on discredited accounts of the early Pythagorean history. The rational numbers or the real line are sheer modernizations with little relation to the ancient Greece, and even the story of ratios and incommensurables is a dramatized fable. On early Greek mathematics a good source is Fowler's Mathematics of Plato's Academy. Concerning the traditional story about the "discovery of irrationals" and the subsequent "crisis", a reviewer writes:




        "It may be somewhat surprising, then, to discover that many, if not most, historians of ancient mathematics disbelieve some or all of this story. In The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, David Fowler gives a convincing account of the reasons for rejecting the standard story, and offers a very interesting alternative reconstruction of the history of early Greek mathematics... One of the important themes in Fowler's book is that one must carefully assess the available sources on early Greek mathematics. He demonstrates that most of the elements of the "standard story" either come from very late Greek sources (500 years or more after the time of Plato) or are reconstructions by modern historians who are really reflecting nineteenth and twentieth century concerns about foundational issues... The resulting picture is quite different from the traditional one. In particular, incommensurability is seen not as a foundational crisis but rather as an interesting discovery that led to significant mathematics."




        The second "crisis" is usually associated not with the creation of calculus but with its subsequent problems, such as the inconsistencies with infinitesimals. It was a pretty slow moving "crisis" though, and the kinematic (late Newtonian) conception calculus, within which Cauchy worked, and most of algebraic analysis of 18th century were not seen as having some cardinal problems at the time. Only injecting later foundational attitudes and concerns about rigor lets one detect them. Another potential crisis, with a better claim to the name (in the Kuhnian sense at least), were the struggles with the notion of function that followed the discovery of Fourier series, see the introductory chapters to Bressoud's Radical Approach to Real Analysis, who names his opening chapter Crisis in Mathematics: Fourier's Series.






        share|improve this answer









        $endgroup$















          3












          3








          3





          $begingroup$

          No, it is not widely accepted. The language of "crises" is rather obsolete and mostly reflects the attitudes of the early 20th century projected backwards. At that time, the contemporaries did indeed characterize the situation in mathematics (and physics) as a crisis. For example, Weyl's 1920 address was titled “The new foundational crisis in mathematics”, to which Hilbert saw fit to respond with what is now called the Hilbert program (see van Dalen's paper. But the language fits well with the language of (Kuhnian) revolutions, which are precipitated by "crises" (accumulations of anomalies), and provides a convenient shorthand for undergraduate texts to get through the history expediently. After all, the retellings of history in textbooks largely serve the practical purpose of bringing students up to speed on the current mathematics, and this is easier to do by translating all of mathematics into modern terminology, and marking the places where major curriculum pieces were introduced as "crises".



          The first "crisis" is almost completely made up based on discredited accounts of the early Pythagorean history. The rational numbers or the real line are sheer modernizations with little relation to the ancient Greece, and even the story of ratios and incommensurables is a dramatized fable. On early Greek mathematics a good source is Fowler's Mathematics of Plato's Academy. Concerning the traditional story about the "discovery of irrationals" and the subsequent "crisis", a reviewer writes:




          "It may be somewhat surprising, then, to discover that many, if not most, historians of ancient mathematics disbelieve some or all of this story. In The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, David Fowler gives a convincing account of the reasons for rejecting the standard story, and offers a very interesting alternative reconstruction of the history of early Greek mathematics... One of the important themes in Fowler's book is that one must carefully assess the available sources on early Greek mathematics. He demonstrates that most of the elements of the "standard story" either come from very late Greek sources (500 years or more after the time of Plato) or are reconstructions by modern historians who are really reflecting nineteenth and twentieth century concerns about foundational issues... The resulting picture is quite different from the traditional one. In particular, incommensurability is seen not as a foundational crisis but rather as an interesting discovery that led to significant mathematics."




          The second "crisis" is usually associated not with the creation of calculus but with its subsequent problems, such as the inconsistencies with infinitesimals. It was a pretty slow moving "crisis" though, and the kinematic (late Newtonian) conception calculus, within which Cauchy worked, and most of algebraic analysis of 18th century were not seen as having some cardinal problems at the time. Only injecting later foundational attitudes and concerns about rigor lets one detect them. Another potential crisis, with a better claim to the name (in the Kuhnian sense at least), were the struggles with the notion of function that followed the discovery of Fourier series, see the introductory chapters to Bressoud's Radical Approach to Real Analysis, who names his opening chapter Crisis in Mathematics: Fourier's Series.






          share|improve this answer









          $endgroup$



          No, it is not widely accepted. The language of "crises" is rather obsolete and mostly reflects the attitudes of the early 20th century projected backwards. At that time, the contemporaries did indeed characterize the situation in mathematics (and physics) as a crisis. For example, Weyl's 1920 address was titled “The new foundational crisis in mathematics”, to which Hilbert saw fit to respond with what is now called the Hilbert program (see van Dalen's paper. But the language fits well with the language of (Kuhnian) revolutions, which are precipitated by "crises" (accumulations of anomalies), and provides a convenient shorthand for undergraduate texts to get through the history expediently. After all, the retellings of history in textbooks largely serve the practical purpose of bringing students up to speed on the current mathematics, and this is easier to do by translating all of mathematics into modern terminology, and marking the places where major curriculum pieces were introduced as "crises".



          The first "crisis" is almost completely made up based on discredited accounts of the early Pythagorean history. The rational numbers or the real line are sheer modernizations with little relation to the ancient Greece, and even the story of ratios and incommensurables is a dramatized fable. On early Greek mathematics a good source is Fowler's Mathematics of Plato's Academy. Concerning the traditional story about the "discovery of irrationals" and the subsequent "crisis", a reviewer writes:




          "It may be somewhat surprising, then, to discover that many, if not most, historians of ancient mathematics disbelieve some or all of this story. In The Mathematics of Plato's Academy, David Fowler gives a convincing account of the reasons for rejecting the standard story, and offers a very interesting alternative reconstruction of the history of early Greek mathematics... One of the important themes in Fowler's book is that one must carefully assess the available sources on early Greek mathematics. He demonstrates that most of the elements of the "standard story" either come from very late Greek sources (500 years or more after the time of Plato) or are reconstructions by modern historians who are really reflecting nineteenth and twentieth century concerns about foundational issues... The resulting picture is quite different from the traditional one. In particular, incommensurability is seen not as a foundational crisis but rather as an interesting discovery that led to significant mathematics."




          The second "crisis" is usually associated not with the creation of calculus but with its subsequent problems, such as the inconsistencies with infinitesimals. It was a pretty slow moving "crisis" though, and the kinematic (late Newtonian) conception calculus, within which Cauchy worked, and most of algebraic analysis of 18th century were not seen as having some cardinal problems at the time. Only injecting later foundational attitudes and concerns about rigor lets one detect them. Another potential crisis, with a better claim to the name (in the Kuhnian sense at least), were the struggles with the notion of function that followed the discovery of Fourier series, see the introductory chapters to Bressoud's Radical Approach to Real Analysis, who names his opening chapter Crisis in Mathematics: Fourier's Series.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 2 hours ago









          ConifoldConifold

          35.6k154128




          35.6k154128





















              1












              $begingroup$

              These notions were popular in the middle of 20th century, in the aftermath of the third crisis. More precisely they were called the "crises of foundations of mathematics". Of course the first two were essentially the reconstructions of historians of mathematics.



              Mathematics was conceived as a rigorous method of obtaining true statements by proofs. The starting point was a set of premises which were considered self-evident without any doubt. This basic believe was seriously shaken several times in the course of history,
              and the principal such episodes are called "crises of foundations". You can read about this in the middle 20th century histories of mathematics.






              share|improve this answer









              $endgroup$

















                1












                $begingroup$

                These notions were popular in the middle of 20th century, in the aftermath of the third crisis. More precisely they were called the "crises of foundations of mathematics". Of course the first two were essentially the reconstructions of historians of mathematics.



                Mathematics was conceived as a rigorous method of obtaining true statements by proofs. The starting point was a set of premises which were considered self-evident without any doubt. This basic believe was seriously shaken several times in the course of history,
                and the principal such episodes are called "crises of foundations". You can read about this in the middle 20th century histories of mathematics.






                share|improve this answer









                $endgroup$















                  1












                  1








                  1





                  $begingroup$

                  These notions were popular in the middle of 20th century, in the aftermath of the third crisis. More precisely they were called the "crises of foundations of mathematics". Of course the first two were essentially the reconstructions of historians of mathematics.



                  Mathematics was conceived as a rigorous method of obtaining true statements by proofs. The starting point was a set of premises which were considered self-evident without any doubt. This basic believe was seriously shaken several times in the course of history,
                  and the principal such episodes are called "crises of foundations". You can read about this in the middle 20th century histories of mathematics.






                  share|improve this answer









                  $endgroup$



                  These notions were popular in the middle of 20th century, in the aftermath of the third crisis. More precisely they were called the "crises of foundations of mathematics". Of course the first two were essentially the reconstructions of historians of mathematics.



                  Mathematics was conceived as a rigorous method of obtaining true statements by proofs. The starting point was a set of premises which were considered self-evident without any doubt. This basic believe was seriously shaken several times in the course of history,
                  and the principal such episodes are called "crises of foundations". You can read about this in the middle 20th century histories of mathematics.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered 19 mins ago









                  Alexandre EremenkoAlexandre Eremenko

                  26.4k13996




                  26.4k13996



























                      draft saved

                      draft discarded
















































                      Thanks for contributing an answer to History of Science and Mathematics Stack Exchange!


                      • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                      But avoid


                      • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                      • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.

                      Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


                      To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                      draft saved


                      draft discarded














                      StackExchange.ready(
                      function ()
                      StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fhsm.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f9575%2fwhat-is-the-status-of-the-three-crises-in-the-history-of-mathematics%23new-answer', 'question_page');

                      );

                      Post as a guest















                      Required, but never shown





















































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown

































                      Required, but never shown














                      Required, but never shown












                      Required, but never shown







                      Required, but never shown







                      Popular posts from this blog

                      Canceling a color specificationRandomly assigning color to Graphics3D objects?Default color for Filling in Mathematica 9Coloring specific elements of sets with a prime modified order in an array plotHow to pick a color differing significantly from the colors already in a given color list?Detection of the text colorColor numbers based on their valueCan color schemes for use with ColorData include opacity specification?My dynamic color schemes

                      Invision Community Contents History See also References External links Navigation menuProprietaryinvisioncommunity.comIPS Community ForumsIPS Community Forumsthis blog entry"License Changes, IP.Board 3.4, and the Future""Interview -- Matt Mecham of Ibforums""CEO Invision Power Board, Matt Mecham Is a Liar, Thief!"IPB License Explanation 1.3, 1.3.1, 2.0, and 2.1ArchivedSecurity Fixes, Updates And Enhancements For IPB 1.3.1Archived"New Demo Accounts - Invision Power Services"the original"New Default Skin"the original"Invision Power Board 3.0.0 and Applications Released"the original"Archived copy"the original"Perpetual licenses being done away with""Release Notes - Invision Power Services""Introducing: IPS Community Suite 4!"Invision Community Release Notes

                      François Viète Contents Biography Work and thought Bibliography See also Notes Further reading External links Navigation menup. 21Google Bookspp. 75–77Google BooksDe thou (from University of Saint Andrews)ArchivedGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGoogle booksGoogle Bookscc-parthenay.frL'histoire universelle (fr)Universal History (en)ArchivedAdsabs.harvard.eduPagesperso-orange.frArchive.orgChikara Sasaki. Descartes' mathematical thought p.259Google BooksGoogle BooksGoogle Bookspp. 152 and onwardGoogle BooksGoogle BooksScribd.comGoogle Books1257-7979Google BooksGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGoogle BooksGallica.bnf.frGoogle BooksGoogle Books"François Viète"Francois Viète: Father of Modern Algebraic NotationThe Lawyer and the GamblerAbout TarporleySite de Jean-Paul GuichardL'algèbre nouvelle"About the Harmonicon"cb120511976(data)1188044800000 0001 0913 5903n82164680ola2013766880073431702w6vt1sb70287374827140948071409480