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Single Idea 18074

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / E. Nonclassical Logics / 2. Intuitionist Logic ]

Full Idea

Though it may appear that the intuitionist is providing an account of the connectives couched in terms of assertability conditions, the notion of assertability is a derivative one, ultimately cashed out by appealing to the concept of truth.

Gist of Idea

Intuitionists rely on assertability instead of truth, but assertability relies on truth

Source

Philip Kitcher (The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge [1984], 06.5)

Book Ref

Kitcher,Philip: 'The Nature of Mathematical Knowledge' [OUP 1984], p.143


A Reaction

I have quite a strong conviction that Kitcher is right. All attempts to eliminate truth, as some sort of ideal at the heart of ordinary talk and of reasoning, seems to me to be doomed.

Related Idea

Idea 18073 Dummett says classical logic rests on meaning as truth, while intuitionist logic rests on assertability [Dummett, by Kitcher]


The 36 ideas from Philip Kitcher

Many necessities are inexpressible, and unknowable a priori [Kitcher]
Knowing our own existence is a priori, but not necessary [Kitcher]
Classical logic is our preconditions for assessing empirical evidence [Kitcher]
I believe classical logic because I was taught it and use it, but it could be undermined [Kitcher]
Kitcher says maths is an idealisation of the world, and our operations in dealing with it [Kitcher, by Resnik]
Mathematical knowledge arises from basic perception [Kitcher]
My constructivism is mathematics as an idealization of collecting and ordering objects [Kitcher]
A 'warrant' is a process which ensures that a true belief is knowledge [Kitcher]
Knowledge is a priori if the experience giving you the concepts thus gives you the knowledge [Kitcher]
A priori knowledge comes from available a priori warrants that produce truth [Kitcher]
We have some self-knowledge a priori, such as knowledge of our own existence [Kitcher]
In long mathematical proofs we can't remember the original a priori basis [Kitcher]
Mathematical a priorism is conceptualist, constructivist or realist [Kitcher]
If mathematics comes through intuition, that is either inexplicable, or too subjective [Kitcher]
Intuition is no basis for securing a priori knowledge, because it is fallible [Kitcher]
Mathematical intuition is not the type platonism needs [Kitcher]
Conceptualists say we know mathematics a priori by possessing mathematical concepts [Kitcher]
If meaning makes mathematics true, you still need to say what the meanings refer to [Kitcher]
Analyticity avoids abstract entities, but can there be truth without reference? [Kitcher]
We derive limited mathematics from ordinary things, and erect powerful theories on their basis [Kitcher]
The old view is that mathematics is useful in the world because it describes the world [Kitcher]
Abstract objects were a bad way of explaining the structure in mathematics [Kitcher]
Arithmetic is an idealizing theory [Kitcher]
Arithmetic is made true by the world, but is also made true by our constructions [Kitcher]
We develop a language for correlations, and use it to perform higher level operations [Kitcher]
A one-operation is the segregation of a single object [Kitcher]
Real numbers stand to measurement as natural numbers stand to counting [Kitcher]
Intuitionists rely on assertability instead of truth, but assertability relies on truth [Kitcher]
Constructivism is ontological (that it is the work of an agent) and epistemological (knowable a priori) [Kitcher]
Idealisation trades off accuracy for simplicity, in varying degrees [Kitcher]
Complex numbers were only accepted when a geometrical model for them was found [Kitcher]
The defenders of complex numbers had to show that they could be expressed in physical terms [Kitcher]
The interest or beauty of mathematics is when it uses current knowledge to advance undestanding [Kitcher]
The 'beauty' or 'interest' of mathematics is just explanatory power [Kitcher]
With infinitesimals, you divide by the time, then set the time to zero [Kitcher]
If experiential can defeat a belief, then its justification depends on the defeater's absence [Kitcher, by Casullo]