Different senses of finitude: An inquiry into Hilbert's finitism

• Published in: Synthese (Dordrecht) Vol. 185; no. 3; pp. 335 - 363
• Main Author: Stenlund, Sören
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.04.2012; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Arithmetic; Concrete objects; Counting; Education; Epistemology; Epistemology. Philosophy of science. Theory of knowledge; Filosofiämnen; Finitism; Finitude; Foundations of mathematics; Hilbert; Historisk-filosofiska ämnen; History and philosophy subjects; HUMANIORA och RELIGIONSVETENSKAP; HUMANITIES and RELIGION; Husserl; Kant; Language attitudes; Life-word; Logic; Mathematical objects; Mathematics; Metamathematics; Metaphysics; Naturalism; Number; Numbers; Numerals; Perceptual intuition; Philosophical object; Philosophy; Philosophy of Language; Philosophy of Science; Philosophy subjects; Proof theory; Surveyable; Teoretisk filosofi; Theoretical philosophy; Husserl; Metamathematics; Number; Perceptual intuition; Concrete objects; Life-word; Foundations of mathematics; Hilbert; Finitism; Counting; Kant; Surveyable; Knowledge theory
• ISSN: 0039-7857; 1573-0964; 1573-0964
• DOI: 10.1007/s11229-010-9823-2

This article develops a critical investigation of the epistemological core of Hilbert's foundational project, the so-called the finitary attitude. The investigation proceeds by distinguishing different senses of 'number' and 'finitude' that have been used in the philosophical arguments. The usual notion of modern pure mathematics, i.e. the sense of number which is implicit in the notion of an arbitrary finite sequence and iteration is one sense of number and finitude. Another sense, of older origin, is connected with practices of counting concrete things, and a third sense is linked up with the immediate intuitive experience of multitudes of concrete things. Hilbert's fìnitism is examined with respect to these differences, and it will be shown that there is a tendency to conflate the different senses of number and fìnitude, a tendency which has been a source of problems in the discussion of the foundations of mathematics and in the philosophy of logic and language.