Department of Philosophy National
University of Ireland, Galway
Philosophy of Mathematics: Poincare's challenge
Frequently we find brief references to similarities between Poincare's
and the later Wittgenstein's philosophies of arithmetic. Inthis paper we attempt to systematically exploresome of these similarities.In
partcular we look at Poincare's opposition to the logicist programme and his rejection of Cantorian infinity and compare his theses to
those of the later Wittgenstein.
Department of History Central European University, Budapest
Socialist Realist Physics: Lev Landau's Principled Phenomenology
"The
electron does not tolerate bureaucratism," senior Soviet physicists
assured their technocratic patrons during Stalin's headlong
industrialization campaign in the late 1920s. Research programs
oriented toward Socialist Construction placed Soviet theoretical
physicists in particular on the defensive. The young theorist Lev
Landau deftly steered between engineering imperatives and the longing
for a unifying mathematical lever to move the world that he blithely
dismissed as "Einsteinkrankheit." His peculiar brand of
"Socialist Realist" physics, forged in the crucible of Stalinist
culture, eventually enabled him to solve the strangest physics problem
of his day: superfluidity in helium.
The 60-minute lecture is followed by a 10-minute break. Then
we hold a 30-60-minute discussion. The language of the presentation is indicated
in the following way:
English
English, except if all participants speak Hungarian
Hungarian
The participants
may comment on the talks and are encouraged to initiate discussion through the
Internet. The comments should be written in the language of the presentation.
The organizer
of the seminar: Miklós Rédei (email:
redei@hps.elte.hu)
4:00
PM
English 
