Arnošt Kolman's Critique of Mathematical Fetishism
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14210%2F20%3A00115025" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14210/20:00115025 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030363826" target="_blank" >https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030363826</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36383-3_7" target="_blank" >10.1007/978-3-030-36383-3_7</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Arnošt Kolman's Critique of Mathematical Fetishism
Original language description
Arnošt Kolman (1892–1979) was a Czech mathematician, philosopher and Communist official. In this paper, we would like to look at Kolman’s arguments against logical positivism which revolve around the notion of the fetishization of mathematics. Kolman derives his notion of fetishism from Marx’s conception of commodity fetishism. Kolman is aiming to show the fact that an entity (system, structure, logical construction) acquires besides its real existence another formal existence. Fetishism means the fantastic detachment of the physical characteristics of real things or phenomena from these things. We identify Kolman’s two main arguments against logical positivism. In the first argument, Kolman applied Lenin’s arguments against Mach’s empiricism-criticism onto Russell’s neutral monism, i.e. mathematical fetishism is internally related to political conservativism. Kolman’s second main argument is that logical and mathematical fetishes are epistemologically deprived of any historical and dynamic dimension. In the final parts of our paper we place Kolman’s thinking into the context of his time, and furthermore we identify some tenets of mathematical fetishism appearing in Alain Badiou’s mathematical ontology today.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach<br>I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2020
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
The Vienna Circle in Czechoslovakia
ISBN
9783030363826
Number of pages of the result
16
Pages from-to
135-150
Number of pages of the book
213
Publisher name
Springer International Publishing
Place of publication
Cham, Switzerland
UT code for WoS chapter
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