Biography:Ferdinand Gonseth

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Short description: Swiss mathematician and philosopher
Ferdinand Gonseth

Ferdinand Gonseth (1890–1975) was a Swiss mathematician and philosopher.[1]

He was born on 22 September 1890 at Sonvilier, the son of Ferdinand Gonseth, a clockmaker, and his wife Marie Bourquin. He studied at La Chaux-de-Fonds, and read physics and mathematics at ETH Zurich, from 1910 to 1914.[2]

In 1929 Gonseth succeeded Jérôme Franel as Professor of Higher Mathematics at ETH.[3] In 1947 he founded Dialectica, with Paul Bernays and Gaston Bachelard. In the same year he took the newly-created chair of philosophy of science at ETH.[4]

Gonseth died on 17 December 1975 at Lausanne.[1] He was noted for his "open philosophy", according to which science and mathematics lacked absolute foundations.[5] See Idoneism (fr).

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