CFP: On Numbers: Seeing through Philosophy and Mathematics (Springer Nature forthcoming)

Dear Scholars,

Greetings of the day! I am Sanjit Chakraborty, currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vellore Institute of Technology—AP University. 

We are planning to edit a thematic volume entitled—

On Numbers: Seeing through Philosophy and Mathematics. 

This project will be co-edited by Professor Kalyan Chakraborty, holding an HOD position in the Department of Mathematics at SRM-AP University and former professor of HRI, India. This thematic book is our long venture to articulate the significance and corollaries of the theory of numbers, reviving the mathematical and philosophical milieus.

Please go through the outline of the book attached for more information about the theme and editors as well.

We welcome a few scholars of the fields to contribute a paper on any of the fifteen areas mentioned in the attached concept outline of the book or any topic you find useful to the theme of this book. 

The project’s planned timeline calls for receiving commitments from all contributors by the end of March 2025, sending initial drafts of the chapters to the editor by the mid of August 2025, and compiling and sending the final chapters after blind reviews to the publisher by the end of October 2025.Please submit your abstract and paper to the appended email address before the deadline:

[email protected] 

The intended length of each chapter is approximately 8000 words, though this is flexible. 

Please provide us with a rough abstract within 200 words and a brief bio within the next few weeks if you wish to contribute (please let us know if a longer time frame is required). It is truly deserved that your input has had a remarkable influence on our edited volume.

Looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much.

With regards,

Sanjit Chakraborty (http://www.routledge.com/authors/i19367-sanjit-chakraborty

/https://philpeople.org/profiles/sanjit-chakraborty)

and

Kalyan Chakraborty (https://srmap.edu.in/faculty/kalyan-chakraborty/)

Concept Outlines:

This thematic edited book is our long venture to articulate the significance and corollaries of the theory of numbers, reviving the mathematical and philosophical milieus. The book revives the notion of zero and the history of number theory in Indian philosophical and mathematical antiquities. The prospective outcome executes the recent advancement of viewing numbers through philosophy and mathematics. And to enhance the impact of number theory and the import of zero to the graduates and researchers who are interested in working on the same, make a liaison between philosophical and mathematical understanding of the notion of the foundation of mathematics.

Nestled inside the theoretical framework, the central query here is, ‘How do mathematics and numbers (natural numbers) conjoin, and via what facts are these well connected?’ If something exists without a number, what does mathematics itself represent? In an attempt to develop an epistemology and metaphysical accretion of the numbers, this book deciphers the theoretical prospect of rendering the numbers as a conduit between existence and non-existence.

We believe these avenues will help researchers to cultivate their presumption of numbers and synchronise a different dimension to critically analyse their thoughts on the philosophical enigma of zero and the ancient Indian mathematical systems of number theory as well.

In the thematic volume, each author would have ideal autonomy in terms of approach, method, etc., but all of them would intimately follow the theme of the book, and thus ideas and conceptual models from philosophical and mathematical perspectives would be developed within a genuinely univocal academic space. This thematic volume encourages the submission of suitable papers to cope with these and similar topics:

1.     The concepts of numbers in Indic mathematical traditions and their contribution to the field of number theory.

2.     Understanding Indian philosophy, particularly in Hinduism and Buddhism, where numbers held symbolic significance and were often used to represent cosmic cycles, spiritual concepts, and philosophical ideas such as the interconnectedness of all things.

3.     The concepts of numbers in Western mathematics (especially classical Greeks) and their applicability to the field of number theory are based on the debate Platonism vs. Nominalism.

4.     Mathematics without foundation vs. Mathematics with foundation—seeing through numbers.

5.     Patterns of numbers and their possible interface with the psychological dimension of abstract entities and their application to the probabilistic number theory.

6.     Cultivating the number zero and relooking at the notion of existence versus non-existence.

7.     Transformation of the philosophical notion of Sunya into the mathematical place value notation zero—roots and its different applications.

8.     Reason versus logic-centric analysis of understanding different arithmetical functions of number theory in Western European mathematical systems and in Islamic studies.

9.     Numbers, the fundamental essence of reality, according to the Pythagoreans, make the harmony and order in the universe that are reflected in the numerical relationships, such as the ratios of musical intervals and geometric proportion – Can this idea be elongated?

10.  Enlightening Plato’s philosophy regarding numbers as fundamental entities that existed independently of the physical world. Numbers were viewed as abstract, perfect, and immortal entities in Plato’s theory of forms, acting as the model for the physical universe. They believe that, through reason and logic, mathematicians are able to uncover this eternal truth.

11.  How does the transcendence of the concept of zero lead to the realization of infinity that goes beyond the fundamental presupposition of objective knowledge?

12.  After the number, what? Can a number be a pedestal for mental representation?

13.  Gödel's incompleteness theorem is a complex set of reasoning that challenges the notion of absolute certainty in mathematics and demonstrates the inherent limitations of formal systems in higher mathematical theorems. By moving beyond this incompleteness theorem, are we able to explore a new direction?

14.  Revisiting Modern Number Theories: How numbers work on the new horizons in the studies of Algebraic number theory, Analytical number theory and Computational number theory.

Editors’ Bios:

Kalyan Chakraborty is a senior professor at SRM University AP, Amravati, Andhra Pradesh. Earlier, he was a professor at Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, for more than two decades. He obtained his PhD in Mathematics from HRI. He was a director of Kerela School of Mathematics. He also has been a post-doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, and at Queen’s University, Canada. He visited the University of Paris VI, VII, Paris; Tokyo Metropolitan University, Kinki University, Kyoto Sangyo University and Waseda University, Japan; Universitá Roma Tre, Italy; University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Northwest University, Shangdong University, and Shangluo University, China; Mahidol University, Thailand; Mandalaya University, Myanmar; Eötvös Lor’and University, Budapest; and many more. The broad area of his research lies in algebraic number theory and analytic number theory. In addition, his research areas include class groups of numbers fields, Diophantine equations, automorphic forms, arithmetic functions, elliptic curves, cryptography and special functions. With more than 80 research articles published in reputed journals, he has published three books on number theory. A Vice-President of the Society for Special Functions & their Applications (SSFA), he has guided more than 10 PhD students and has been on the editorial board of some reputed journals.

Sanjit Chakraborty is an Assistant Professor (Senior) in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Vellore Institute of Technology -AP University. Before that, he taught at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, the Indian Institute of Management Indore, and the Central University of Hyderabad. His philosophical venture was nourished under the guidance of Professor Hilary Putnam (Emeritus Professor, Harvard University) from 2008 to 2016. His work spans the topics of Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind and Language, Artificial Intelligence and Morality. Chakraborty’s books include Human Minds and Cultures (Springer Nature, 2024), Engaging Putnam (De Gruyter, 2022), Living without God: A Multicultural Spectrum of Atheism (Springer Nature, 2022), The Labyrinth of Mind and World: Beyond Internalism-Externalism (Routledge, 2020), Understanding Meaning and World: A Relook on Semantic Externalism (CSP, 2016), and Renewing Moral Philosophy (forthcoming) Chakraborty has extensively published 50 papers in much-respected peer-reviewed international journals, and his works have been reviewed and cited in reputed international journals by noted scholars. Chakraborty has been invited for talks at different renowned institutions and universities worldwide.

Find him on—

http://www.routledge.com/authors/i19367-sanjit-chakraborty https://philpeople.org/profiles/sanjit-chakraborty