The Threat of Logical Mathematism

The present survey of the critique of mathematical logic in Germany at the turn of the 20th century attempts to answer several interesting questions: How did the contemporary German philosophers see the role and significance of logic? What kind of relationships did they claim to exist between logic, mathematics, linguistics and psychology? Pulkkinen starts by giving a historical survey of the development of German logic 1830-1920 as it appears against the background of German academic philosophy. Next he studies the interrelationships between logic and psychology, logic and linguistics, and logic and mathematics. After this the author presents the general features of the reception of mathematical logic in Germany between 1880 and 1920. This is followed by a more detailed account of the arguments of three individual critics: Fritz Mauthner, Heinrich Rickert, and Theodor Ziehen.