Intuitionism and Philosophy

The first part of this article shows some main points of Brouwer's mathematics and the philosophical doctrines that anchor it. It points out that Brouwer's special conception of human consciousness spawns his positive ontological and epistemic doctrines as well as his negative program. The second part focuses on intuitionistic logic: once again a brief picture of the technical field will precede the philosophical analyses-this time those of Heyting and Dummett-of formal intuitionistic logic and its role in intuitionism. The third part, however, aims to show that matters aren't (or needn't be) so bleak. It suggests, in particular, that putting all this in historical perspective will show intuitionism as technically less quixotic and philosophically more unified than it had initially seemed.