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The Essence of Numbers
Lecture Notes in Mathematics. History of Mathematics Subseries. Springer, 2020.
This book considers the manifold possible approaches, past and present, to our understanding of the natural numbers. They are treated as epistemic objects: mathematical objects that have been subject to epistemological inquiry and attention throughout their history and whose conception has evolved accordingly. Although they are the simplest and most common mathematical objects, as this book reveals, they have a very complex nature whose study illuminates subtle features of the functioning of our thought.
Using jointly history, mathematics and philosophy to grasp the essence of numbers, the reader is led through their various interpretations, presenting the ways they have been involved in major theoretical projects from Thales onward. Some pertain primarily to philosophy (as in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Wittgenstein...), others to general mathematics (Euclid's Elements, Cartesian algebraic geometry, Cantorian infinities, set theory...).
Also serving as an introduction to the works and thought of major mathematicians and philosophers, from Plato and Aristotle to Cantor, Dedekind, Frege, Husserl and Weyl, this book will be of interest to a wide variety of readers, from scholars with a general interest in the philosophy or mathematics to philosophers and mathematicians themselves.

La Possibilité des nombres
P.U.F., Septembre 2014
Les nombres sont des entités si familières, d’un emploi si quotidien, qu’il paraît inutile de s’attarder sur les modalités de leur existence. De Thalès et Pythagore à nos jours, l’histoire n’aura pourtant eu de cesse d’établir que nous ne comprenons jamais que de façon incomplète et insatisfaisante leur nature. La pluralité des points de vue possibles pour en traiter est étonnante, et sans cesse renouvelée. C’est de cette variété surprenante, mais aussi de la beauté et de la profondeur des analyses et des œuvres qui lui sont sous-jacentes, que La Possibilité des nombres cherche à rendre compte.

THEMES DE RECHERCHE
Philosophie des mathématiques/ Philosophy of mathematics.
Phénoménologie/
Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger...).
PUBLICATIONS
LIVRES
ARTICLES
CONFERENCES ORGANISEES RECEMMENT
PHENOMATHNICE , 9-10 Décembre 2010.
Copyright @ 2010 Laboratoire J.A. Dieudonné