The indispensability argument and the nature of mathematical objects

  1. Plebani, Matteo
Revista:
Theoria: an international journal for theory, history and foundations of science

ISSN: 0495-4548

Ano de publicación: 2018

Volume: 33

Número: 2

Páxinas: 249-263

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.1387/THEORIA.17613 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

Outras publicacións en: Theoria: an international journal for theory, history and foundations of science

Resumo

Se contrastan dos concepciones de la naturaleza de los objetos matemáticos: la concepción de los objetos matemáticos como objetos preconcebidos (Yablo 2010), y el platonismo de deber fuerte (Knowles 2015). Se argumenta que algunas de las tesis defendidas por los amigos del argumento de la indispensabilidad están en armonía con el platonismo de deber fuerte y en tensión con la concepción de los objetos matemáticos como objetos preconcebidos.

Información de financiamento

* Many thanks to audiences in Santiago de Compostela, Munich and Pavia. This work has been fi-nanced by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER through the projects FFI2013-41415-P (The explanatory function of abstract objects: their nature and cognoscibility), FFI2017-82534-P (Abstract Objects: For and Against. A Neo-Carnapian Way Out) and through a Juan de la Cierva-formación fellowship (IJCI-2014-19943).

Financiadores

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Azzouni, Jody. 2012. Taking the easy road out of dodge. Mind 121/484: 951-965.
  • Baker, Alan. 2003. Does the existence of mathematical objects make a difference? Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81/2: 246-264.
  • Baker, Alan. 2009. Mathematical explanation in science. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (3): 611-633.
  • Balaguer, Mark. 1995. A platonist epistemology. Synthese 103/3: 303-325.
  • Balaguer, Mark. 1998. Platonism and anti-Platonism in mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Bangu, Sorin. 2017. Indispensability of mathematics. OBO. Retrieved 29 Sep. 2017, from http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396577/obo-9780195396577-0241.xml.
  • Bueno, Otávio and Edward N. Zalta. 2005. A nominalist’s dilemma and its solution. Philosophia Mathematica 13/3: 297-307.
  • Clark, Michael J. and David Liggins. 2012. Recent work on grounding. Analysis 72: 812-823.
  • Colyvan, Mark. 2015. Indispensability arguments in the philosophy of mathematics. In Edward N. Zalta, ed., The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2015 Edition) https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/mathphil-indis/.
  • Correia, Fabrice. 2006. Generic essence, objectual essence, and modality. Nous 40/4: 753-67.
  • Dorr, Cian. 2010. Of numbers and electrons. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110/2pt2: 133-181.
  • Field, Hartry. 1989. Realism, mathematics and modality. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Field, Hartry. 2016 (2nd ed.). Science without numbers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Fine, Kit. 1994. Essence and modality. Nous Supplement 8: 1-16.
  • Fine, Kit. 2005. Our knowledge of mathematical objects. In Tamar Szabo Gendler and John Hawthorne, eds., Oxford studies in epistemology, 89-109. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Hale, Bob and Crispin Wright. 2003. Reason’s proper study: Essays towards a neo-Fregean philosophy of mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Hellman, Geoffrey. 1989. Mathematics without numbers: Towards a modal-structural interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Knowles, Robert. 2015. Heavy duty platonism. Erkenntnis 80/6: 1255-1270.
  • Lewis, David. 1988. Statements partly about observation. Philosophical Papers 17/1: 1-31.
  • Liggins, David. 2016. Grounding and the indispensability argument. Synthese 193/2: 531-548.
  • Linnebo, Øystein. 2010. Pluralities and sets. Journal of Philosophy 107/3: 144-164.
  • Linnebo, Øystein. 2013. The potential hierarchy of sets. Review of Symbolic Logic 6/2: 205-228.
  • Lyon, Aidan. 2012. Mathematical explanations of empirical facts, and mathematical realism. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 90/3: 559-578.
  • Melia, Joseph. 1995. On what there’s not. Analysis 55/4: 223-229.
  • Melia, Joseph. 2006. The conservativeness of mathematics. Analysis 66/3: 202-208.
  • Pincock, Chris. 2007. A role for mathematics in the physical sciences. Noûs 41/2: 253-275.
  • Plebani, Matteo. 2017. Mathematical platonism meets ontological pluralism? Inquiry DOI: 10.1080/0020174X.2017.1347518
  • Priest, Graham. 2005. Towards non-being: The logic and metaphysics of intentionality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Psillos, Stathis. 2010. Scientific realism: Between platonism and nominalism. Philosophy of Science 77/5: 947-958.
  • Psillos, Stathis. 2011. Living with the abstract: realism and models. Synthese 180/1: 3-17.
  • Putnam, Hilary. 2009. Ethics without ontology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
  • Rayo, Agustín. 2015. Nominalism, trivialism, logicism. Philosophia Mathematica 23/1: 65-86.
  • Russell, Bertrand. 1919. Introduction to mathematical philosophy. London: George Allen and Unwin.
  • Saatsi, Juha. 2017. Dynamical systems theory and explanatory indispensability. Philosophy of Science 84/5: 892-904.
  • Yablo, Stephen. 2002. Abstract objects: A case study. Nous 36/s1: 220-240.
  • Yablo, Stephen. 2010. Things: Papers on objects, events, and properties. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Yablo, Stephen. 2012. Explanation, extrapolation, and existence. Mind 121/484: 1007-1029.
  • Yablo, Stephen. 2014. Aboutness. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Yablo, Stephen. 2017. If-Thenism. Australasian Philosophical Review 1 (2): 115-132. DOI: 10.1080/24740500.2017.1346423
  • Waismann, Friedrich. 1965. Verifiability. In Antony Flew, ed., Logic and language, 122-51. New York: Doubleday