Meaning in Mathematics

Reverend Dr John Polkinghorne gained his PhD in physics at Cambridge University in 1955. After a brief period as Lecturer in Mathematical Physics at Edinburgh University, he returned to Cambridge until, in 1979, he resigned his Professorship to train for the Anglican Priesthood. He served as Dean and Chaplin of Trinity Hall and then President of Queen's College, Cambridge until his retirement in 1996. In 1997 Polkinghorne was awarded a KBE and in 2002 he won the Templeton Prize for Science and Religion. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society and his professional service has included membership of the Nuclear Physics Board and the BMA Medical Ethics Committee. He is a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion and has been made an Honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of Kent and Durham University, and an Honorary Doctor of Science by the University of Exeter, the University of Leicester and the Marquette University.

• Introduction ; 1. Is Mathematics Discovered or Invented? ; 2. Exploring the Mathematical Library of Babel ; 3. Mathematical Reality ; 4. Mathematics, the Mind, and the Physical World ; 5. Mathematical Understanding ; 6. Creation and Discovery in Mathematics ; 7. Discovery, Invention and Realism: Godel and others on the Reality of Concepts ; 8. Mathematics and Objectivity ; 9. The Reality of Mathematical Objects ; 10. Getting More out of Mathematics than What We Put In ; Index