Wittgenstein's philosophy of mathematics

Abstract

Almost half Wittgenstein's surviving writings deal with the philosophy of mathematics, and this speaks for itself as to the importance he attached to this area of philosophy." Witt genstein also repeatedly stresses the important connections be tween his ideas in this field and other areas of philosophy (CE Wingenstein (1953), p. 232. (1976) pp. 31 & 111, (1978), p. 162, and Rhees (1984), p. 340). Yet commentators have not exactly shared Wittgenstein's own estimate of the value of his work in this area. In contrast with the ever-increasing number of books on every other aspect of his philosophy, Wingen stein's philosophy of mathematics has been the subject of only a handful of books of any substance, notably those by Crispin Wright (Wright (1980)) and Stuart Shanker (Shanker (1987)).