David Corfield:
Toward a philosophy of real mathematics
Find it at Powells, Best Book Buys, isbn.nu. —A manifesto on behalf of making philosophy of mathematics the philosophy of “real” mathematics, that is, not of formal representations of mathematical theories, nor of elementary examples, but of mathematics as it actually is done. I agree. See an appreciation, with some criticisms, of Corfield’s work at John Baez’s This Week’s Finds #198. Corfield now has a “semiblog” with notes pertaining to “real” mathematics. There are also some brief notes from a conference on n-categories at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications organized by John Baez and J. P. May in June 2004. Added 2 Jan 2005: Two papers have been added to the Pitt archive, “Categorification as a Heuristic Device” and “Mathematical Kinds, or Being Kind to Mathematics”.
Essai sur l’histoire de l’algèbre réelle. 2nd ed. Vrin, 1999. (Mathesis) —From Sturm’s theorem on the real roots of polynomials to the model theory of real closed fields.
New York: Mitchell Kennerly, 1915. Harris, best known perhaps for the scandalous My life and loves, published five volumes of portraits. The present volume is the first. He seems to have been a natural Boswell, though more critical. See the Book List for more. · Find it at ABEBooks or Powell’s.