Kim-Ee Yeoh comments my reading suggestion:
"Indiscrete Thoughts" by Gian-Carlo Rota, published by Birkhäuser in 1997. Available on the Web. [I forgot where]
I'm rather fond of Rota's two volumes of musings. For the purpose of furthering the quality of philosophizing, would it not be better served citing the relevant chapters, if not the actual page numbers?
As you took note, the book covers a swathe of topics.
Shall I also give the line numbers, Kim-Ee? The book of Rota is divided into parts and chapters, with titles. It is not so difficult to find quickly that something may (or not) interest you. What is a "relevant" chapter in a collection of philosophical essays? You might skip the "biographies" of some mathematicians, with some unpleasant fragments, if you are not interested. I liked a few others. Part II, Ch. VII: "The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics Upon Philosophy" is an inspired attack addressed at the "analytical philosophers" who felt really offended! (This is a reprint from the Journal of Metaphysics, published also in the book "18 Unconventional Essays on the Nature of Mathematics", Springer, ed. by Reuben Hersh. I also recommend it [also on the Web], it is plenty of serious wisdom, although sometimes hard to read.) This chapter deals with the non-philosophical essence of logic, with the "philosophical vacuity" of formal definitions. Very inspiring. For Rota the question of IDENTITY is more important than that of EXISTENCE. The chapter XII: "Syntax, Semantics, and the Problem of the Identity of Mathematical Items" (p. 151) begins his presentation of the subject, which continues later. Rota exposes some reasoning based on his favourite philosophical topic, the phenomenology, continuing previous sections. This may not convince you (e.g. if you are an orthodox materialist...), but you might learn something. The chapter about /Fundierung/ (XV, p. 172) in which Rota fights against the reductionism, may give you a headache. But you should survive. Anyway, /a ciascuno il suo/. Jerzy K.