In the childhood of every human being and at the dawn of human history there is an amazing and, until now, unexplained leap from simple genetically programmed behavior to language, symbolic thinking, and culture. In The First Idea, Stanley Greenspan and Stuart Shanker explore this missing link and offer brilliant new insights into two longstanding questions: how human beings first create symbols and how these abilities evolved and were transmitted across generations over millions of years. From fascinating research into the intelligence of both human infants and apes, they identify...

A layman's guide to the mechanics of Godel's proof together with a lucid discussion of the issues which it raises. Includes an essay discussing the significance of Godel's work in the light of Wittgenstein's criticisms.

This surveys ten key topics in the philosophy of science, logic and mathematics in the 20th century. Each of the essays is written by one of the world's leading experts in that field. The papers provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject in question, and are written in a way that is accessible to philosophy undergraduates and to those outside of philosophy who are interested in these subjects. Each chapter contains an extensive bibliography of the major writings in the field. Among the topics covered are the philosophy of logic, of mathematics and of Gottlob Frege; Ludwig...

The twentieth century witnessed the birth of analytic philosophy. This volume covers some of its key movements and philosophers, including Frege and Wittgenstein's Tractatus.