Bernard Bolzano : his life and work / Paul Rusnock and Jan S̃ebestík.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rusnock, Paul, author.

Sebestik, Jan, author.

Contributor:

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophers.

Mathematicians.

Czechoslovakia.

Bolzano, Bernard, 1781-1848.

Bolzano, Bernard.

Mathematicians--Czechoslovakia--Biography.

Philosophers--Czechoslovakia--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xxxiii, 667 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2019.

Summary:

"Bernard Bolzano (1781-1850) is increasingly recognized as one of the greatest nineteenth-century philosophers. A philosopher and mathematician of rare talent, he made ground-breaking contributions to logic, the foundations and philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion. Many of the larger features of later analytic philosophy (but also many of the details) first appear in his work: for example, the separation of logic from psychology, his sophisticated understanding of mathematical proof, his definition of logical consequence, his work on the semantics of natural kind terms, or his anticipations of Cantor's set theory, to name but a few. To his contemporaries, however, he was best known as an intelligent and determined advocate for reform of Church and State. Based in large part on a carefully argued utilitarian practical philosophy, he developed a program for the non-violent reform of the authoritarian institutions of the Hapsburg Empire, a program which he himself helped to set in motion through his teaching and other activities. Rarely has a philosopher had such a great impact on the political culture of his homeland. Persecuted in his lifetime by secular and ecclesiastical authorities, long ignored or misunderstood by philosophers, Bolzano's reputation has nevertheless steadily increased over the past century and a half. Much discussed and respected in Central Europe for over a century, he is finally beginning to receive the recognition he deserves in the English-speaking world. This book provides a comprehensive and detailed critical introduction to Bolzano, covering both his life and works."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Bolzano's Life p. 5

1 The Historical Context p. 5

(a) The Restoration of the Sciences in Bohemia p. 14

(b) The Czech National Revival p. 16

2 The Young Bolzano p. 21

3 Prseceptor Bohemiee p. 35

4 The Mathematician p. 48

5 Troubles p. 50

6 The Hoffmanns p. 64

7 The Techobuz Institute for Advanced Study p. 68

8 Last Years: Return to Prague p. 77

1 The Highest Moral Law p. 85

2 Dudes and Rights p. 95

3 The Cultivation of Virtue p. 97

4 The Ethics of Belief p. 99

3 Political Philosophy p. 105

1 The Best State p. 110

(a) General Organization, Constitution p. 110

(b) Social Institutions p. 114

(c) Economic Institutions p. 117

2 Principles and Aims of Political Reform p. 120

4 Philosophy of Religion p. 139

1 Bolzano's Concept of Religion p. 143

2 Figurative or Symbolic Doctrines p. 152

3 Sources of Religious Belief: Natural and Revealed Religion p. 157

4 The Concept of Revelation p. 158

5 Catholicism and the Catholic Church p. 167

1 Natural Religion p. 167

2 Catholicism p. 169

3 How is the Content of Catholicism Determined? p. 170

4 Revelation and Miracles p. 174

5 Universal Consensus and Revelation p. 177

6 Authority in the Church p. 181

6 Logic p. 187

1 Bolzano's Logical Writings p. 190

2 The Scope of Bolzano's Logic p. 191

3 Logical Objects p. 193

4 Propositions and Ideas p. 206

5 The Nature of Ideas p. 210

(a) Ideas and their Objects p. 215

(b) The Individuation of Ideas p. 217

(c) The Logic of Classes p. 219

(d) Simple and Complex Ideas p. 221

(e) Objectless Ideas p. 222

(f) Intuitions and Concepts p. 224

(g) Representing Individuals p. 232

(h) Representing Natural Kinds p. 238

6 Contributions to the Analysis of Propositions p. 243

(a) On the Form and Content of Propositions p. 245

(b) The Subject-Predicate Form p. 249

(c) Truth p. 250

(d) Temporal Determinations p. 253

(e) Relations p. 255

(f) Existence and Objectuality p. 259

(g) Negation p. 261

(h) Categorical Statement Forms p. 265

(i) Disjunctions and Conditionals p. 267

(j) Purely Conceptual and Intuitional Propositions p. 271

(k) Necessity, Possibility, and Contingency p. 272

7 Bolzano's Variation Logic p. 274

(b) Variation, Substitution, and Form p. 281

(c) Analyticity and Related Notions p. 295

(d) Consequence and Related Notions p. 301

8 Ground-Consequence and the Objective Connection between Truths p. 327

9 Sciences and their Treatises: The Theory of Science Proper p. 331

7 Theory of Knowledge p. 337

1 The Elements of Bolzano's Theory of Knowledge p. 342

(a) Subjective Ideas and Judgments p. 342

(b) Intuitions and Concepts p. 346

(c) Individuation; Equal Ideas; Clarity, Distinctness, and Vividness p. 348

(d) Judgments p. 351

(e) Mediated and Immediate Judgments p. 352

(f) A priori and Empirical Judgments p. 356

2 Knowledge, Ignorance, Error p. 357

3 Certainty, Probability, and Confidence; Knowledge and Belief p. 362

4 Wissen p. 365

5 Judgments of Experience p. 367

6 Bolzano on Kant p. 373

8 Ontology and Metaphysics p. 405

1 Objects in General p. 407

2 Attributes p. 408

(a) Origins: Universal Mathematics (1810) p. 417

(b) Bolzano's Later Theory of Collections p. 422

4 Identity, Equality, Similarity p. 442

5 Bolzano on some Traditional Ontological Theses p. 444

6 Actual and Non-actual Objects p. 449

7 Substance and Adherence p. 450

8 Time and Space p. 458

9 From Metaphysics to Physics: Bolzano's Atoms and Leibniz's Monads p. 470

10 Non-actual Objects p. 474

11 Necessity, Possibility, Contingency p. 475

12 A Proof of the Existence of God p. 495

13 The World p. 497

1 On Mathematical Method p. 503

(a) The Ancient Ideal p. 503

(b) Bolzano's Position p. 507

(c) Definitions and Explications p. 509

(d) Proofs, Objective and Subjective p. 510

(e) Foundations and Foundational Research p. 513

2 Adventures in the Infinite: A Sample of Bolzano's Mathematical Work p. 515

(a) Infinite Series p. 515

(b) Bolzano's Analysis of Continuity p. 520

(c) Paradoxes of the Infinite p. 533

10 Aesthetics, the Science of Beauty p. 544

2 Works on Aesthetics p. 548

3 On Laughter p. 549

4 The Concept of Aesthetics p. 551

5 The Concept of the Beautiful p. 552

(a) Conceptual Analysis p. 552

(b) The Beautiful p. 556

(c) Other Definitions p. 570

6 On the Classification of the Fine Arts p. 578

(a) The Division of the Arts p. 580

(b) Arts of Pure Thought p. 581

(c) Arts of the External Senses: the Tonal Arts p. 584

(d) The Visual Arts p. 586

(e) Panorama of the Fine Arts p. 589

7 The Reception of Bolzano's Aesthetics p. 590

8 Critical Remarks and Conclusion p. 591.

Notes:

Includes bibliography of Bolzano's writings (pages 599-620).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 621-646) and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

0198823681

9780198823681

OCLC:

1049819641