Browsing All Posts filed under »Logic«

Discovery and Invention Part I: Distinctions and Notations

December 6, 2018 by

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In this three part (probably) series, I’m going to look at the notions of invention and discovery as they relate to how we think about mathematics and logic. In this first post, I’m going to set up the distinction between discovery and invention as I see it, and then talk about whether systems of notation for […]

Grinworthy Quotes (16): Self-promotion Edition

October 8, 2018 by

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I just had a co-authored (with Eamon Darnell) paper that’s based on a chapter of my dissertation (both titled “Is Hume’s Principle Analytic?” — link to preprint of the paper) accepted for publication (yay!). Near the end of the paper, we raise an issue that seems (to me at least) to have been under the surface […]

Frege and Hume at Thanksgiving

October 2, 2018 by

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It’s almost Thanksgiving here in Canada, so here’s a thanksgiving themed post about concepts from Frege and Neo-logicism. In his Grundlagen (1884), Frege proposes that the number that belongs to two concepts is the same just in case the objects falling under those concepts can be correlated one-to-one (i.e. they’re equinumerous). The formalization of that claim is […]

Open Logic Update: OER Week

March 9, 2018 by

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This week (March 5-9, 2018) is OER week (OER stands for Open Educational Resources). As many of you know, I’ve been working on a free and open logic textbook, forallx: Calgary Remix. You can find my last update, including plenty of links, here. For OER week, Richard Zach and I gave a one hour workshop […]

It’s a Small World: The Leśniewski-Sobociński Theorem.

February 21, 2018 by

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The other day I was reading M. Resnik’s Frege and the Philosophy of Mathematics (1980). In discussing `Frege’s way out’, he mentions a proof by Leśniewski showing that Frege’s attempted fix to the system of the Grundgesetze is inconsistent, but gives a reference to a paper published by Sobociński in 1949. This intrigued me, as […]

Teaching Logic and Forallx Update

December 7, 2017 by

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As many of you might remember, I taught the Logic I course here at UCalgary for the first time, and blogged about the experience here, here and here. You might also remember that I was involved in remixing a version of PD Magnus’ and Tim Button’s forallx open textbook for that course (see here and […]

The Further Adventures of Hero and Hera.

September 27, 2017 by

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Those familiar with the neo-logicism literature, may also be familiar with the characters Hero and Hera. Hero was introduced by Crispin Wright in the late `90s, and the story Hero and his sister Hera was fleshed out by Philip Ebert and Marcus Rossberg in 2007*. In that paper, we learn that Hero and Hera both […]

Teaching as a Grad Student: Logic End of Semester

May 23, 2017 by

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This is the 5th post in this series, and the third about my experience teaching for the first time (see parts one, and two). As of a couple of weeks ago, I finally managed to submit the final marks for the Logic I course I had been teaching, marking the end of my responsibilities for […]

Teaching as a Grad Student: Guest Lecturing on Logicism

April 26, 2017 by

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I was recently given the opportunity to give a lecture on Frege’s logicism and related topics for our Logic III course (cross-listed as an undergraduate and a graduate course). That class had gotten up to the point of looking at second-order Peano Arithmetic, which is a natural jumping off point for looking at the logic […]

Cognitive Dissonance and Philosophy

April 5, 2017 by

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I want to first give credit to the authors of “Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)” – Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. Their talk of cognitive dissonance and the metaphor of the ‘pyramid of choice’ has inspired my comments below. Although the ideas in this book have obvious ramifications for psychology, psychotherapy, political science, […]

Teaching as a Grad Student: Logic mid-Semester

March 13, 2017 by

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This is the third installment of our occasional series: Teaching as a Grad Student. In the first installment, I discussed preparing to teach for the first time, as well as my first couple of weeks teaching logic. In the second installment, Alison discussed her experiences teaching philosophy of science. We’re just past the half-way point […]

Goldilocks, Bad Company and some Slippery Fish

February 28, 2017 by

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No this isn’t a terrible (amazing?) fairy tale. And no, the title isn’t (just) badly thought out clickbait. The Bad Company problem, the Goldilocks problem and the Problem of Fishiness are all problems I’m writing about in my dissertation. More specifically, the overarching idea is to look at ways of solving the Bad Company problem. […]

Teaching as a Grad Student: Logic Week One

January 22, 2017 by

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I have just started teaching my first course as instructor of record (i.e. I’m lecturing, not TAing), and I thought that this would be a good opportunity to start an occasional series on teaching as a graduate student. What follows are my thoughts after finishing my first (and now second) week of teaching. I plan […]

More About Forallx: Calgary Remix

January 18, 2017 by

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The Winter 2017 edition of Forallx: Calgary remix has been out for a few weeks. Indeed, I’ve started teaching from it. Richard Zach has blogged about our progress here. Later this week I’ll be posting about my experience getting ready to teach “Logic I” for the first time, so stay tuned!   (Photo credit: Richard […]

An Open Source Logic Text

October 18, 2016 by

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The Open Logic Project, initiated by my supervisor, Richard Zach, is a project to produce a comprehensive free and open source intermediate logic text. More recently, Richard and I have been putting together a Calgary remix of forallx, a free and open source text for introductory logic, originally written by PD Magnus. Below is the […]

Grinworthy Quotes (12)

July 24, 2016 by

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Here’s W. V. O. Quine discussing the fact that Frege didn’t adopt a type theoretic approach (like Russell and Whitehead’s) when faced with Russell’s paradox. Actually, it is not to be wondered that Frege did not think of this course, or, thinking of it, adopt it. It was by having all his classes at ground […]

Is the Universe Part of the World?

June 11, 2016 by

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First let me head off the suspicion that I’ll be discussing some sort of weird idealist/massively subjectivist/etc metaphysics. I’m concerned with ‘world’ and ‘universe’ as they’re used by analytic metaphysicians, logicians, and philosophers of mathematics. In particular I’m concerned about the cardinalities of the domains of discourse assumed by some philosophers when dealing with, in […]

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