Hermann Grassmann’s contribution to Whitehead’s foundations of logic and mathematics

摘要

Alfred North Whitehead, author of a Treatise on Universal Algebra almost entirely based on Hermann Grassmann’s Ausdehnungslehre, did not only advertised this work but he also incorporated some of its leading ideas into his main project, federating logic, mathematics and physics in his monumental cosmology. Here, through some historical account starting with Leibniz, we suggest some essential lines of thought underlying both works, emphasizing method and structure and their ethical connections.