[FOM] ending the thread on the role of psychology in intuitionism

[frank waaldijk]

Martin, I think nobody envies you your job as moderator, least of all I,
since it seems a time-consuming and not always easy job. So the following
is meant as informative feed-back, not as criticism.

I'm sorry to see Andrej leave this forum, I usually appreciate his postings
very much.

The (unexplained) rejection of my own posting along with the ending of the
thread `Psychological basis of intuitionism' took me a little by surprise
as well. I can understand some of your reluctance to allow this type of
discussion, but I fail to find your argument (that it is not close to
Foundations of Mathematics as a technical subject) in the FOM-list
description cited below.

The FOM list is intended to provide a venue for discussing the provocative,
> sometimes controversial, ideas which drive contemporary research in
> foundations of mathematics and which often do not find their way into
> journal articles. FOM postings must be highly relevant to issues and
> programs in foundations of mathematics.


Other than you (it seems) I find the discussion of the relation between
formalized mathematics and the truth perceptions behind different
formalizations, extremely relevant to the question what drives contemporary
research in foundations of mathematics. In fact, much more so than the many
discussions on technical details that find their way onto FOM (not that I'm
against them, but...).

So perhaps you should add to the FOM-list description that postings should
generally be of a technical mathematical nature, with some leeway granted
by the moderator. I would not advocate such a restriction, but it might
clarify a policy which is in place anyway, or am I perhaps completely
missing something?

An alternative could be to allow just a bit more leeway, to include also
issues with philosophical and psychological aspects - as long as they are
really relevant to what drives mathematicians to investigate foundations.

I hope independently that Andrej will reconsider his decision. I also have
had some of my postings rejected and it never is pleasant, but the
discussions on FOM are surely enriched by being followed and joined by many
mathematicians of different feathers and convictions.

Best wishes to all,

Frank Waaldijk
http://www.fwaaldijk.nl/mathematics.html



>
> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. ending the thread on the role of psychology in intuitionism
>       (Martin Davis)
>    2. l basis of Intuitionism as in geometry (Adriano Palma)
>    3. Re: SOL vs. ZFC (Dustin Wehr)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Martin Davis <martin at eipye.com>
> To: fom at cs.nyu.edu
> Cc:
> Date: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:05:49 -0700
> Subject: [FOM] ending the thread on the role of psychology in intuitionism
>  In retrospect, I shouldn't have let this thread develop at all. I
> permitted it to begin because Brouwer certainly used some language that
> could be understood psychologically. However it has veered into byways
> remote from any connection with foundations of mathematics as a technical
> subject of study.
>
> I will no longer accept posts on this topic.
>
> Martin
> **
>
> **
> Martin Davis
> Professor Emeritus, Courant-NYU
> Visiting Scholar, UC Berkeley
> eipye + 1 = 0
>
>
>
>
>
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