Frege's Much-Discussed Book, the Foundations of Arithmetic, Book Review

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Frege's much-discussed book, The Foundations of Arithmetic, is an influential and valuable insight into the philosophy of mathematics. A German mathematician and philosopher, Gottlob Frege was unwaveringly devoted to improving the philosophical underpinnings of mathematics and science. In the Foundations of Arithmetic, Frege delves deeply into not only an understanding of numbers, but he also looks into much larger questions surrounding meaning and truth. Frege argues against the idea that arithmetic is based on psychology, and instead notes that logic is the main underpinning of arithmetic. The Foundations of Arithmetic ultimately argues that analytic judgments govern the laws of arithmetic, and thus these laws exist a priori. This important contribution brought him great praise from many academics, but his work was not without flaws. Importantly, The Foundations of Arithmetic has been criticized for a relatively weak understanding of basic terms underlying the discussion of psychology. This is an important and weighty criticism, since much of Frege's book is based upon his rejection of the idea that logic is founded upon psychology.

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Despite these important criticisms of Frege's book, The Foundations of Arithmetic remains an important and insightful book into the philosophy of mathematics a century after it was first published in the original German.

Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege was born in Germany in 1848. He got his doctoral degree in Gttingen, and quickly wrote his post-doctoral thesis, and became a university professor. During his long and fruitful academic career, the tireless Frege worked extensively to build up the philosophical foundations of mathematics and science. Among his important contributions is the invention of an artificial language called Begriffsschrift, which was based on logical notation (Frege Biography). Frege wrote extensively, publishing a number of other influential papers during his lengthy career, including Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, Volume I (1893), Logic (1897),.....

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