Ferdinand Gonseth (1890–1975) was a Swiss mathematician and philosopher. He was born on 22 September 1890 at

Sonvilier Sonvilier is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Jura bernois (administrative district), Jura bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. It is located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura (''Jura Bernois' ...

, the son of Ferdinand Gonseth, a clockmaker, and his wife Marie Bourquin. He studied at

La Chaux-de-Fonds La Chaux-de-Fonds (; archaic ) is a Swiss city in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura Mountains at an altitude of 992 metres, a few kilometres south of the French border. After Geneva, Lausanne, Biel/Bienne, and Fribourg, ...

, and read physics and mathematics at

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, from 1910 to 1914. In 1929 Gonseth succeeded

Jérôme Franel Jérôme Franel (1859–1939) was a Swiss mathematician who specialised in analytic number theory. He is mainly known through a 1924 paper, in which he establishes the equivalence of the Riemann hypothesis to a statement on the size of the discre ...

as Professor of Higher Mathematics at ETH. In 1947 he founded '' Dialectica'', with

Paul Bernays Paul Isaac Bernays ( ; ; 17 October 1888 – 18 September 1977) was a Swiss mathematician who made significant contributions to mathematical logic, axiomatic set theory, and the philosophy of mathematics. He was an assistant and close collaborator ...

and

Gaston Bachelard Gaston Bachelard (; ; 27 June 1884 – 16 October 1962) was a French philosopher. He made contributions in the fields of poetics and the philosophy of science. To the latter, he introduced the concepts of ''epistemological obstacle'' and ''Epist ...

. In the same year he took the newly created chair of

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. Amongst its central questions are the difference between science and non-science, the reliability of scientific theories, ...

at ETH. Gonseth died on 17 December 1975 at

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

. He was noted for his "open philosophy", according to which science and mathematics lacked absolute foundations. See .

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