The truths of logic and mathematics

pp. 360-365

in: Z. Jordan, Philosophy and ideology, Berlin, Springer, 1963

Abstrakt

The opinion that there is no sense of the term "true' in which a belief may be true in spite of not corresponding to any fact and that the correspondence relation in which truth consists is that of reflection, meets with some difficulties in accounting for the truths of logic and mathematics. This is one of the reasons why the materialist theory of truth is firmly committed to the view that logic and mathematics have an empirical basis and express empirical generalisations of past experience. According to Lenin, this was "proved' or "brilliantly guessed' by Hegel. Marxist-Leninists in Poland accepted Engels' and Lenin's authority on this matter and felt that it provided a sufficient reason for dismissing any objections that have been raised against considering logic and mathematics as empirical science ¹¹⁰.