Concepts and Axioms

The paper discusses the transition from informal concepts to mathematically precise notions; examples are given, and in some detail the case of lawless sequences, a concept of intuitionistic mathematics, is discussed. A final section comments on philosophical discussions concerning intuitionistic logic in connection with a "theory of meaning". What I have to tell here is not a new story, and it does not contain any really new ideas. The main difference with my earlier discussions of the same topics ([TD88, chapter16],[Tro91]) is in the emphasis. This paper starts with some examples of the transition from informal concepts to mathematically precise notions, followed by a more detailed discussion of one of these examples, the intuitionistic notion of a choice sequence, arguing for the lasting interest of this notion for the philosophy of mathematics. In a final section, I describe my own position relative to some of the philosophical discussions concerning intuitionistic logic in the wr..