On Perspectives. Mathematical logic arose from a concern with the nature and the limits of rational or mathematical thought, and from a desire to systematise the
modes of its expression. The pioneering investigations were diverse and largely
autonomous. As time passed, and more particularly in the last two decades,
interconnections between different lines of research and links with other branches of
mathematics proliferated. The subject is now both rich and varied. It is the aim of
the series to provide, as it were, maps or guides to this complex terrain. We shall not
aim at encyclopaedic coverage; nor do we wish to prescribe, like Euclid, a
definitive version of the elements of the subject. We are not committed to any
particular philosophical programme. Nevertheless we have tried by critical
discussion to ensure that each book represents a coherent line of thought; and that, by
developing certain themes, it will be of greater interest than a mere assemblage of
results and techniques.