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Ideas for 'Axiomatic Theories of Truth', 'The Logic of Decision' and 'Truth by Convention'

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7 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry
If analytic geometry identifies figures with arithmetical relations, logicism can include geometry [Quine]
     Full Idea: Geometry can be brought into line with logicism simply by identifying figures with arithmetical relations with which they are correlated thought analytic geometry.
     From: Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935], p.87)
     A reaction: Geometry was effectively reduced to arithmetic by Descartes and Fermat, so this seems right. You wonder, though, whether something isn't missing if you treat geometry as a set of equations. There is more on the screen than what's in the software.
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 3. Axioms for Geometry
There are four different possible conventional accounts of geometry [Quine]
     Full Idea: We can construe geometry by 1) identifying it with algebra, which is then defined on the basis of logic; 2) treating it as hypothetical statements; 3) defining it contextually; or 4) making it true by fiat, without making it part of logic.
     From: Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935], p.99)
     A reaction: [Very compressed] I'm not sure how different 3 is from 2. These are all ways to treat geometry conventionally. You could be more traditional, and say that it is a description of actual space, but the multitude of modern geometries seems against this.
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 4. Axioms for Number / d. Peano arithmetic
The compactness theorem can prove nonstandard models of PA [Halbach]
     Full Idea: Nonstandard models of Peano arithmetic are models of PA that are not isomorphic to the standard model. Their existence can be established with the compactness theorem or the adequacy theorem of first-order logic.
     From: Volker Halbach (Axiomatic Theories of Truth [2011], 8.3)
The global reflection principle seems to express the soundness of Peano Arithmetic [Halbach]
     Full Idea: The global reflection principle ∀x(Sent(x) ∧ Bew[PA](x) → Tx) …seems to be the full statement of the soundness claim for Peano arithmetic, as it expresses that all theorems of Peano arithmetic are true.
     From: Volker Halbach (Axiomatic Theories of Truth [2011], 22.1)
     A reaction: That is, an extra principle must be introduced to express the soundness. PA is, of course, not complete.
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
To reduce PA to ZF, we represent the non-negative integers with von Neumann ordinals [Halbach]
     Full Idea: For the reduction of Peano Arithmetic to ZF set theory, usually the set of finite von Neumann ordinals is used to represent the non-negative integers.
     From: Volker Halbach (Axiomatic Theories of Truth [2011], 6)
     A reaction: Halbach makes it clear that this is just one mode of reduction, relative interpretability.
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / a. Early logicism
If mathematics follows from definitions, then it is conventional, and part of logic [Quine]
     Full Idea: To claim that mathematical truths are conventional in the sense of following logically from definitions is the claim that mathematics is a part of logic.
     From: Willard Quine (Truth by Convention [1935], p.79)
     A reaction: Quine is about to attack logic as convention, so he is endorsing the logicist programme (despite his awareness of Gödel), but resisting the full Wittgenstein conventionalist picture.
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 6. Logicism / b. Type theory
Set theory was liberated early from types, and recent truth-theories are exploring type-free [Halbach]
     Full Idea: While set theory was liberated much earlier from type restrictions, interest in type-free theories of truth only developed more recently.
     From: Volker Halbach (Axiomatic Theories of Truth [2011], 4)
     A reaction: Tarski's theory of truth involves types (or hierarchies).