Browsing All posts tagged under »philosophy of mathematics«

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Call for Applications: Summer School on Mathematical Philosophy for Female Students

December 23, 2016 by

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I was reminded by Alison’s post yesterday, that the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) has recently put out their call for applications for their summer school for women. It is the fourth iteration of this summer school, and this year’s lecturers are a veritable who’s who of mathematical philosophy. Applications are due March 5th, […]

Grinworthy Quotes (10)

November 5, 2015 by

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Here’s other amusing line from Paul Benacerraf’s dissertation (Princeton, 1960, p. 182): It was in fact through [Cantor’s] interest in the infinite and in infinite numbers that he developed the theory of sets. The purpose was to make an honest woman of the infinite, a task held by most mathematicians of his time to be […]

Grinworthy Quotes (9)

October 8, 2015 by

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I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these — I’ve been reading some fairly dry material recently. The following quote is at the very beginning of Paul Benacerraf’s unpublished PhD dissertation (Princeton, 1960) which I’m reading as part of my dissertation research. The quote is attributed to an unnamed undergraduate student. […]

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