From Frege to Gödel (Through Hilbert)

Abstract

Frege was born in 1848, only forty-four years after Kant’s death. Still, Frege’s philosophy of mathematics differs from Kant’s much more than the latter differs from Plato’s, Aristotle’s and Proclus’. The main difference lies in Frege’s attention to a profoundly renewed way of doing mathematics that had flourished during the nineteenth century, and to his intention to contribute to its foundation, if not to its development. It is often said that Frege was the founding father of analytic philosophy. This, however, does not explain such a concern with mathematics; it is rather a consequence of this concern.