Stanford University Press, 2000.
Elementary mathematics is one of the most characteristic creations of modern thought.
A cynic might go a step further and suggest that all those modern mathematicians toiling in the nether depths of the subject are not down there to build foundations but to undermine them. The obvious example is G del s theorem, which is a statement of what mathematics can t do, a proof that the foundations can never be entirely secure. Brian Rotman has an answer to suggest, but it is a sadly shallow follow-up to the excavations of G del s generation. Rotman takes up two main themes. First comes a semiotic analysis of mathematical writing.