Posted: Jan 17, 2017 4:38 pm
Well, I will say nice things about philosophy of mathematics influencing computer science and mathematics, and I will mention individuals and specific contributions. Admittedly, some of the individuals had credentials as working mathematicians (but then, so did Descartes). I would respond to any claim that these people were really doing mathematics and not philosophy by pointing out that they got derided at the time for doing the latter but not the former.archibald wrote:I'm not dodging your other questions. 'How much worth bothering with?' is a different question to just 'worth bothering with?'. I'm not making huge claims on behalf of philosophy even for the individuals I've cited. For one thing, they're not in my specialist area of expertise. I could tell you about Le Corusier. He wrote quite a bit of architectural philosophy and a LOT of buildings got built according to it, and people lived their lives in them (and still do). I don't think there's many other 'philosophical worthwhiles' that are quite as tangibly influential, for better or worse.
Taxonomists are tedious people.