Discussion about the Foundations of Mathematics (Sunday, 7 September 1930)

Abstract

The following remarks are merely contributions to a discussion and thus necessarily mere sketches; I must therefore ask to be excused for not speaking with anything like the precision demanded by these questions.

First published in Erkenntnis 2 (1931–2). This was Harm’s contribution to the discussion after R. Carnap, A Heyting, J. von Neumann, and F. Waismann had presented differing views on the foundations of mathematics. This was in the framework of the Second Conference on Theory of Knowledge in the Exact Sciences, which was held at Königsberg in 1930. Carnap’s, Heyting’s, & von Neumann’s papers were also published in Erkenntnis. Some of Waismann’s material may be found in his notes, Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle (Oxford, 1979), pp. 102 ff.