Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science by Hermann Weyl.

Translated by Olaf

Helmer with a new Introduction by Frank Wilczek (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University

press, 1949, 2009), xvii +311 pp. $19.95/£27.95 paperback.

The reprinting of Hermann Weyl’s Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science in

paperback offers scientists an opportunity to add this rare classic to their library. But

any book reprinted sixty years after first appearing raises the question, “Why now?” Of

course, the publisher may merely have seized upon an opportunity to sell books arising

from the widespread if bizarre fascination with “0” year anniversaries and Weyl’s own

fascination with “[t]he mystery that clings to numbers” (7). Alternatively, the reprinting

may be intended to inspire a new generation by appealing to nostalgia for great

achievements or to provoke interest in questions “science has yet to catch up with” (ix)

as suggested in the new Introduction by the Nobelist physicist, Frank Wilczek (who

coincidentally turned sixty in 2011).

Weyl was “a philosophically-minded mathematician” (xvi) who believed that

“science would perish without a supporting transcendental faith in truth and reality, …

facts … and the imagery of ideas” (xvi), and, at the same time, “the function of

mathematics [is] to be at the service of the natural sciences” (61). Certainly Weyl’s

concerns are not trivial, and he is at pains to describe how some of his predecessors in

science reached “conclusions with stormy enthusiasm … (“Bruno had to pay for it at the

stake)” (98).

But Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science is not a monument to ideas.

Indeed, it is a hodgepodge of ideas as Weyl admits: “This arrangement … [is]

objectionable from the standpoint of esthetic unity” (xvi). Its two “historico-
philosophical” (xvi) parts, come from a 1926 article in German, highly embroidered

with notes (now set off by brackets), occasional footnotes, and references. Part I,

Mathematics, is divided into chapters on Mathematical Logic (Axiomatics), Number and

Continuum (the Infinite), and Geometry. Part II, Natural Science, weighted toward

physics, is divided into chapters on Space and Time (the Transcendental External

World), Methodology, and The Physical Picture of the World.

Inevitably, new computational methods have replaced Weyl’s mathematical

formalism (arguments, assumptions, axioms … permutations, postulates, premises), and

his physical constructivism (“the living metaphysical interpretation conforms to the

theoretical construction” [149]). But Weyl shines in the six “systematic-scientific” (xvi)

appendices added to the 1947 English translation. These appendices provide “the [raw

material for the] development of mathematics and physics in the intervening years, as

well as biology” (xvi).” In Appendix A, “The Structure of Mathematics,” Weyl raises the

specter of biological species while referring to Gö del’s “strong plea for the realistic

standpoint where classes are conceived as real objects” (234). In Appendix B Weyl

applies “combinatorial theory of aggregates and of the mutually inverse operations of

partition and union … [to] genetics … [where he correctly infers from] empirical

evidence … [that] the distinction of nature and nurture … never becomes a perfectly

sharp one” (240-1). The remaining appendices build from quantum theory, to chemical

bondage, biology, and evolution. Indeed, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science

is essential reading for anyone wishing to see pre-Watson/Crick biology à la 1947

lucidly portrayed in mathematical-physical-philosophical terms.

Stanley Shostak
University of Pittsburgh