The Annual Catalogue (1737) stands as a monumental literary compilation that captures the dynamic essence of early 18th-century publishing. This anthology, curated with meticulous attention by its editors, offers an expansive view into the cultural and intellectual currents of its time. A diverse array of writings, from incisive essays to reflective poetry, weaves a tapestry of thought that encapsulates the ethos of the year. With its range of genres and styles, The Annual Catalogue excels...

Proofs and Refutations is essential reading for all those interested in the methodology, the philosophy and the history of mathematics. Much of the book takes the form of a discussion between a teacher and his students. They propose various solutions to some mathematical problems and investigate the strengths and weaknesses of these solutions. Their discussion (which mirrors certain real developments in the history of mathematics) raises some philosophical problems and some problems about ...

Suffolk has a special beauty. The coast of England’s easternmost county embraces the towns of Lowestoft, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Felixstowe, and remote places such as Benacre and Shingle Street. Several rivers thread through its landscape, heading for the North Sea, including the Stour, Deben and Alde, while the port of Ipswich on the River Orwell is the county town. Historic Bury St Edmunds is the centre for West Suffolk, and Newmarket on the western edge is famed for its horse racing. T...

Coastal fishing is a way of life within an industry that has provided a living for communities up and down England’s east coast for generations. Today the inshore fishery is under pressure as never before and the number of people working in it has dwindled, but these coastal waters around our country have been fished for various fish and shellfish for millennia. The work is often difficult and dangerous, and the hours are unsocial, but many traditions continue alongside modern methods and ...

Imre Lakatos's Proofs and Refutations is an enduring classic, which has never lost its relevance. Taking the form of a dialogue between a teacher and some students, the book considers various solutions to mathematical problems and, in the process, raises important questions about the nature of mathematical discovery and methodology. Lakatos shows that mathematics grows through a process of improvement by attempts at proofs and critiques of these attempts, and his work continues to inspire ...

This open access book offers new insights into issues raised in philosophy of mathematics and in philosophy of science by Imre Lakatos. Lakatos was one of the most significant philosophers of the 20th Century, and his ideas remain important and relevant today. November 2022 saw the centenary of Lakatos’s birth, and the event was marked by an international conference held at the LSE – where Lakatos made his career after he had emigrated from Hungary to England. This volume consists of a sel...

A perennial bestseller by eminent mathematician G. Polya, How to Solve It will show anyone in any field how to think straight.In lucid and appealing prose, Polya reveals how the mathematical method of demonstrating a proof or finding an unknown can be of help in attacking any problem that can be "reasoned" out--from building a bridge to winning a game of anagrams. Generations of readers have relished Polya's deft--indeed, brilliant--instructions on stripping away irrelevan...

Described by the philosopher A.J. Ayer as a work of 'great originality and power', this book revolutionized contemporary thinking on science and knowledge. Ideas such as the now legendary doctrine of 'falsificationism' electrified the scientific community, influencing even working scientists, as well as post-war philosophy. This astonishing work ranks alongside The Open Society and Its Enemies as one of Popper's most enduring books and contains insights and arguments that demand t...

The ancient Greeks discovered them, but it wasn't until the nineteenth century that irrational numbers were properly understood and rigorously defined, and even today not all their mysteries have been revealed. In The Irrationals, the first popular and comprehensive book on the subject, Julian Havil tells the story of irrational numbers and the mathematicians who have tackled their challenges, from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Along the way, he explains why irrational nu...

Adrian Bardon's A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time is a short introduction to the history, philosophy, and science of the study of time-from the pre-Socratic philosophers through Einstein and beyond. A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time covers subjects such as time and change, the experience of time, physical and metaphysical approaches to the nature of time, the direction of time, time travel, time and freedom of the will, and scientific and philosophical approaches to eternit...

Geometry defines the world around us, helping us make sense of everything from architecture to military science to fashion. And for over two thousand years, geometry has been equated with Euclid's Elements, arguably the most influential book in the history of mathematics In The King of Infinite Space, renowned mathematics writer David Berlinski provides a concise homage to this elusive mathematician and his staggering achievements. Berlinski shows that, for centuries, sci...

The Foundations of Geometry Geometry, like arithmetic, requires for its logical development only a small number of simple, fundamental principles. These fundamental principles are called the axioms of geometry. The choice of the axioms and the investigation of their relations to one another is a problem which, since the time of Euclid, has been discussed in numerous excellent memoirs to be found in the mathematical literature. This problem is tantamount to the...