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Watson, 1938 - Mathematics and Its Foundations
Watson, 1938 - Mathematics and Its Foundations
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II.-MATHEMATICS
-BYA. G. D.
WATSON.
A-. G.
D.
WATSON:
MATHEMATICS
AND
ITS
FOUNDATIONS.
441
442
A. G. D. WATSON:
Fig. 1.
MATHEMATICS
AND
ITS
FOUNDATIONS.
443
444
A. G. D.
WATSON:
= the square root of 2, by arrangingto use the word " multiply ", not onlyin its usual sense,but also in a new sensein which
ld. x ld. = 2. A closerinvestigationshowsthat the orthodox
theoryof real numbersis in essentialagreementwiththis view,
and that the point about its so-calleddefinition
is that it is not
at all, but a statementthat no definition
a definition
is required.
It is notnecessaryforus hereto go intothequestionofsections
of the rational numbersas such. We observe that to every
suchsectionan infinite
decimalcorresponds,
and so forsimplicity
we can confineourselvesto decimals as representatives
of the
real numbers.
Infinitedecimals are a particularcase of infinitesequences,
and one of the essentialstepsin the processof arithmetisation
of
mathematicswas that by whichit was shownthat it is unnecessary,as well as unjustified,
to speak of infinity
as a number,and
of infinitesequencesas if theywerean infinitenumberof things
in a row. Instead ofthis,we have to thinkofan infinite
sequence
as a functionof a variable whose values are cardinalnumbers
(or positiveintegers).
The notionof a functionof a variableof this kind in general,
by whichto everycardinalnumbertherecorrespondssomething,
a proposition,or a numberor anotherfunction,accordingto the
natureofthe functionin question,thusbecomesthe fundamental
notionofmathematics. All mathematicalstatements,
it appears,
can be expressedin termsof propositionalfunctionsof thiskind.
There is a special methodof proofappropriateto these functions,the methodof mathematicalinduction,whichrepresents
the intuitiveidea that something
is true of all cardinalnumbers,
if it is true of 0 and also of the successorof any numberof
whichit is true. In the usual notationof mathematicallogic
this is embodiedin the formula:
/
1 F.
P. Ramsey,FoundationsofMathematics,
pp. 22, 23.
MATHEMATICS
AND
ITS
FOUNDATIONS.
445
Physik,(1931),38, p. 173.
Cf. the accountin M. Black's The NatureofMathematics,
Supplement
A, esp. p. 149.
2
446
A. G. D. WATSON:
MATHEMATICS
AND
ITS
FOUNDATIONS.
447
448
A. G. D.
WATSON:
449
30
450
A. G. D. WATSON:
191,n. 48a.
MATHEMATICS
AND
ITS
FOUNDATIONS.
451