[FOM] FOM reviews

[Harvey Friedman]

In an effort to do my part in making the FOM email list the mandatory 
place of record for important issues in f.o.m. and f.o.m. related 
topics, I want to expand my activities on the FOM.

My primary activity on the FOM is, and will remain, the reporting of 
my research in f.o.m. that is of sufficient general interest.

I have already started the FTGI (fundamental topics of general 
interest) series with my posting 
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/pipermail/fom/2003-April/006427.html

I now want to post (my) reviews of selected papers/books on major 
topics in f.o.m. or that are f.o.m. related. These include 
mathemaical expositions and works in the philosophy of 
mathematics/logic, as well as works in the foundations of computer 
science. In general, I will not review individual research papers.

These reviews will be of a more informal nature than would be 
appropriate for formal publication in Journals. Furthermore, I expect 
that people may post opposing views, and there will be some 
electronic interaction, that may result in additional content and 
modification of my original viewpoint.

Because of the nature of this electronic medium, it is NOT important 
that I am not an expert on many of the areas in which these reviewed 
items lie. A requirement of expertise IS appropriate for a formal 
Journal context, since one wants maximum knowledge and experience on 
the part of reviewers because of the NONINTERACTIVE nature of 
ordinary reviewing.

It is only necessary that I be fair, reasonable, well balanced, 
present good arguments and perceptive points, raise relevant 
questions, have an underlying level of competence and experience, 
admit mistakes, learn from mistakes, take into account opposing 
views, seek, get and digest information that I don't have, etc.

I want to maintain a dynamic list of prioritized items to review.

I welcome suggestions from the subscribers. If I can't review it, 
perhaps some other subscriber(s) can review it on the FOM.

Here is a preliminary list of items I would like to review.

1. The Prospects for Mathematical Logic in the Twenty-First Century, 
by Buss, Kechris, Pillay, Shore, Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, Vol. 7, 
No. 2, June, 2001.

1. Recent Progress on the Continuum Hypothesis (after Woodin), by 
Patrick Dehornoy, http://matin.math.unicaen.fr/~dehornoy/

2. Another Use of Set Theory, Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, Patrick 
Dehornoy, Vol. 2, No. 4, December, 1996. Elementary Embeddings and 
Algebra, by Patrick Dehornoy, http://matin.math.unicaen.fr/~dehornoy/

3. Model Theory: Geometrical and Set-Theoretic Aspects and Prospects, 
Angus Macintyre, Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, to appear.

4. New Directions in Descriptive Set Theory, by A. Kechris, Bulletin 
of Symbolic Logic, vol. 5, no. 2, June, 1999.

5. Hilbert's Programs: 1917-22, W. Seig, Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 
vol. 5, no. 1, March, 1999.

6. Godel's Path from the Incompleteness Theorems (1931) to 
Phenomenology (1961), Richard Tieszen, Bulletin of Symblic Logic, 
Vol. 4 No. 2, June 1998.

7. Computability and Recursion, Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, Robert I. 
Soare, Vol. 2 No. 3, September, 1996.

8. Inner Models and Large Cardinals, Ronald Jensen, Bulletin of 
Symbolic Logic, Vol. 1, No. 4, December, 1995.

9. Logic, Logic, and Logic, George Boolos, ed. Richard Jeffrey, 
Harvard University Press, 1998.

10. In the Light of Logic, Solomon Feferman, Oxford University Press, 1998.

11. Mathematics in Philosophy, Selected Essays, Charles Parsons, 
Cornell University Pres, 1983.

12. Elements of Intuitionism, Michael Dummett, Clarendon Press, 1977.

13. Realism in Mathematics, Penelope Maddy, Clarendon Press, 1990. 
Naturalism in mathematics, Penelope Maddy, Clarendon Press, 1997.

14. A New Kind of Science, Stephen Wolfram, Stephen Wolfram LLC, 2002.

What do you think are the most important items to review on the FOM?