Logic & Philosophy of Science

Course Description

Course: LPS/Phil 247
Name: New Wave Philosophy of Mathematics
Description: This will be a loosely organized seminar devoted to reading and discussing some new work in the field. I expect we’ll read at least the material listed here, but the rest can be determined in large part by the interests of those in attendance, perhaps even as those interests develop over the course of the quarter.

From José Ferreirós and Jeremy Gray, eds., The Architecture of Modern Mathematics, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006):

  • Tappenden, ‘The Riemannian background to Frege’s philosophy’.
  • Avigad, ‘Methodology and metaphysics in Dedekind’s theory of ideals’.

From Paolo Mancosu, ed., The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008):

  • Tappenden, ‘Mathematical concepts and definitions’.
  • Tappenden, ‘Mathematical concepts: fruitfulness and naturalness’.
  • Avigad, ‘Computers in mathematical inquiry’.
  • Avigad, ‘Understanding proofs’.
  • Urquhart, ‘The boundary between mathematics and physics’.
  • Urquhart, ‘Mathematics and physics: strategies of assimilation’.

And finally, the whole of:

  • Charles Parsons, Mathematical Thought and its Objects, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20098).