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Full Idea
I call my new approach to mathematics 'proceduralism'. It agrees with Hilbert and Poincaré that the objects and truths are postulations, but takes them to be imperatival rather than indicative in form; not propositions, but procedures for construction.
Gist of Idea
The objects and truths of mathematics are imperative procedures for their construction
Source
Kit Fine (Our Knowledge of Mathematical Objects [2005], Intro)
Book Ref
'Oxford Studies in Epistemology Vol. 1', ed/tr. Gendler,R/Hawthorne,J [OUP 2004], p.89
A Reaction
I'm not sure how an object or a truth can be a procedure, any more than a house can be a procedure. If a procedure doesn't have a product then it is an idle way to pass the time. The view seems to be related to fictionalism.
| 9222 | The objects and truths of mathematics are imperative procedures for their construction [Fine,K] |
| 9223 | My Proceduralism has one simple rule, and four complex rules [Fine,K] |
| 9224 | Proceduralism offers a version of logicism with no axioms, or objects, or ontological commitment [Fine,K] |