Synopses & Reviews
The editors have selected a number of papers that represent recent studies by Mexican philosophers and historians of science. While attention is paid to several main developments of science in Mexico, the book does not deal only with national or even regional issues. Moreover, Mexican works on the philosophy of science are no new phenomenon. Although originating in the need to construct a national identity during the 19th century, and stimulated by the European Enlightenment, Mexican scholarship has now reached maturity, both in terms of an awareness of their historical situation and creative competence with respect to the live issues at the international level. This book presents topics of biology and physics, historical explanation and the historiography of science, and foundations of mathematics, with particular concern for Hilbert, Russell and Wittgenstein.
Table of Contents
Preface;
R.S. Cohen. Introduction;
S. Ramirez. A: Mexican Studies. 1. Logic in Mexico with a Postscript: Eli de Gortari;
W. Beller. 2. Contributions of Santiago Ramírez to the History of the
Colegio de Minería;
J. Ruiz de Esparza. 3. Gabino Barreda and the Introduction of Darwinism in Mexico: Positivism and Evolution;
R. Ruiz Gutierrez. B: Social Studies. 4. Psychoanalysis and Marxism;
S. Ramirez Ruiz. 5. Functional Explanations in History;
C. Pereyra. 6. The History of Science: Internal or External?
C. Yturbe. C: Natural Sciences. 7. Genetic Mutation: the Development of the Concept and its Evolutionary Implications;
A. Barahona Echeverria. Galileo's Revolution: the Use of Idealized Laws in Physics;
E.N. Bravo. 9. Among Men, Closest to God;
R. Martinez E. D: Mathematics. 10. The Philosophy and the Program of Hilbert;
C. Torres. 11. Some Logical Remarks Concerning the Continuum Problem;
C. Alvarez Jimenez. 12. On the Relation of Hilbert's Second and Tenth Problems;
M. Fernandez de Castro. 13. Three Metaphysical Theses on Mathematical Philosophy;
S. Ramirez Castañeda. 14. The Principles of Mathematics of Bertrand Russell;
A. Garciadiego. 15. Wittgenstein, On Mathematical Proof;
G. Zambrana Castañeda. 16. To Show and to Prove;
C. Torres, J.O. Falcon Vega. 18. A Return to Vienna;
S. Ramirez Castañeda. Index.