Pillars of Enduring Strength: Learning from Hermann Weyl

Hermann Weyl’s reflections on the continuum, the infinite, and the very nature of mathematical existence continue to exert a perennial influence on the intel lectual landscape of foundational thought. Two relatively recent conferences, 2018 in Leeds and 2021 in Oslo, focused on Weyl’s most penetrating contributions to the foundations of mathematics: his 1918 monograph Das Kontinuum and his 1921 essay Über die neue Grund lagenkrise der Mathematik (“On the New Foundational Crisis in Mathematics”). Written during a period of philosophical ferment and foundational unease, these works are remarkable for their ambition and frankness. In the wake of the aforementioned conferences, it became apparent that many new ideas had arisen and new insights had been gained, for example, with respect to Weyl’s predicative philosophy of mathematics, its scope, and limits. After some deliberation and hesitation, the editors of the present volume con cluded that they should not let the opportunity of making them available in a book slip by. The essays collected in this volume approach Weyl’s foundational writings from diverse perspectives: historical, philosophical, mathematical, and combinations thereof. Some contributions place Weyl within the broader arc of the foundational debates of the early twentieth century, examining his shiftin position between classical predicativism and intuitionism. Others explore the implications of Das Kontinuum for contemporary philosophy of mathematics, logic, and the theory of computation. Still others attend to the metaphysical and epistemological dimensions of Weyl’s work—his vision of mathematics as both a human endeavor and a form of ideal knowledge.