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The logistic school of mathematics was the third school of thought concerning its ultimate basis in the early years of the 20th century: the others were formalism and intuitionism. The logistic school is very similar to that of formalism. Its basic thesis is that pure mathematics is entirely a branch of logic—that all the theorems of mathematics are simply logical statements of the form p implies q. The main exponent of this view was Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), who built on the work of , Gottlob Frege (1848 - 1925) and , Giuseppe Peano (1858 - 1932), to produce with , Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947) the greatest work of the school, the Principia Mathematica.
Major problems with logicism began to be seen even at the time. There were problems with the philosophy of logic, and the reduction of mathematics to logic made these also problems in mathematics—an undesirable result. It also became apparent that, although logic is of supreme importance in mathematics, it is by no means necessary as the ultimate basis of mathematical thought. SMcL |
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