Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'There Are No Abstract Objects', 'The Thought: a Logical Enquiry' and 'Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics'

expand these ideas     |    start again     |     specify just one area for these texts


57 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 5. Objectivity
There exists a realm, beyond objects and ideas, of non-spatio-temporal thoughts [Frege, by Weiner]
2. Reason / D. Definition / 8. Impredicative Definition
An 'impredicative' definition seems circular, because it uses the term being defined [Friend]
2. Reason / D. Definition / 10. Stipulative Definition
Classical definitions attempt to refer, but intuitionist/constructivist definitions actually create objects [Friend]
2. Reason / E. Argument / 5. Reductio ad Absurdum
Reductio ad absurdum proves an idea by showing that its denial produces contradiction [Friend]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 2. Defining Truth
The word 'true' seems to be unique and indefinable [Frege]
3. Truth / A. Truth Problems / 8. Subjective Truth
Anti-realists see truth as our servant, and epistemically contrained [Friend]
3. Truth / C. Correspondence Truth / 3. Correspondence Truth critique
There cannot be complete correspondence, because ideas and reality are quite different [Frege]
3. Truth / H. Deflationary Truth / 1. Redundant Truth
The property of truth in 'It is true that I smell violets' adds nothing to 'I smell violets' [Frege]
4. Formal Logic / B. Propositional Logic PL / 3. Truth Tables
In classical/realist logic the connectives are defined by truth-tables [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / E. Nonclassical Logics / 2. Intuitionist Logic
Double negation elimination is not valid in intuitionist logic [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / E. Nonclassical Logics / 6. Free Logic
Free logic was developed for fictional or non-existent objects [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 2. Mechanics of Set Theory / b. Terminology of ST
A 'proper subset' of A contains only members of A, but not all of them [Friend]
A 'powerset' is all the subsets of a set [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / b. Empty (Null) Set
Set theory makes a minimum ontological claim, that the empty set exists [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 3. Types of Set / d. Infinite Sets
Infinite sets correspond one-to-one with a subset [Friend]
4. Formal Logic / F. Set Theory ST / 4. Axioms for Sets / a. Axioms for sets
Major set theories differ in their axioms, and also over the additional axioms of choice and infinity [Friend]
5. Theory of Logic / D. Assumptions for Logic / 2. Excluded Middle
The law of excluded middle is syntactic; it just says A or not-A, not whether they are true or false [Friend]
5. Theory of Logic / G. Quantification / 7. Unorthodox Quantification
Intuitionists read the universal quantifier as "we have a procedure for checking every..." [Friend]
5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 5. Paradoxes in Set Theory / a. Set theory paradoxes
Paradoxes can be solved by talking more loosely of 'classes' instead of 'sets' [Friend]
5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 5. Paradoxes in Set Theory / c. Burali-Forti's paradox
The Burali-Forti paradox asks whether the set of all ordinals is itself an ordinal [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / b. Types of number
The 'integers' are the positive and negative natural numbers, plus zero [Friend]
The 'rational' numbers are those representable as fractions [Friend]
A number is 'irrational' if it cannot be represented as a fraction [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / c. Priority of numbers
The natural numbers are primitive, and the ordinals are up one level of abstraction [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / f. Cardinal numbers
Cardinal numbers answer 'how many?', with the order being irrelevant [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 3. Nature of Numbers / g. Real numbers
The 'real' numbers (rationals and irrationals combined) is the Continuum, which has no gaps [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / h. Ordinal infinity
Raising omega to successive powers of omega reveal an infinity of infinities [Friend]
The first limit ordinal is omega (greater, but without predecessor), and the second is twice-omega [Friend]
6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / j. Infinite divisibility
Between any two rational numbers there is an infinite number of rational numbers [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 1. Foundations for Mathematics
Is mathematics based on sets, types, categories, models or topology? [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 6. Mathematics as Set Theory / a. Mathematics is set theory
Most mathematical theories can be translated into the language of set theory [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / a. Structuralism
The number 8 in isolation from the other numbers is of no interest [Friend]
In structuralism the number 8 is not quite the same in different structures, only equivalent [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / b. Varieties of structuralism
Are structures 'ante rem' (before reality), or are they 'in re' (grounded in physics)? [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / c. Nominalist structuralism
Structuralist says maths concerns concepts about base objects, not base objects themselves [Friend]
Structuralism focuses on relations, predicates and functions, with objects being inessential [Friend]
6. Mathematics / B. Foundations for Mathematics / 7. Mathematical Structuralism / d. Platonist structuralism
'In re' structuralism says that the process of abstraction is pattern-spotting [Friend]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 1. Mathematical Platonism / b. Against mathematical platonism
The big problem for platonists is epistemic: how do we perceive, intuit, know or detect mathematical facts? [Friend]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 4. Mathematical Empiricism / b. Indispensability of mathematics
Mathematics should be treated as true whenever it is indispensable to our best physical theory [Friend]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 7. Formalism
Formalism is unconstrained, so cannot indicate importance, or directions for research [Friend]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 10. Constructivism / a. Constructivism
Constructivism rejects too much mathematics [Friend]
6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 10. Constructivism / b. Intuitionism
Intuitionists typically retain bivalence but reject the law of excluded middle [Friend]
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 2. Types of Existence
Thoughts in the 'third realm' cannot be sensed, and do not need an owner to exist [Frege]
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / c. Facts and truths
A fact is a thought that is true [Frege]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / c. Nominalism about abstracta
Call 'nominalism' the denial of numbers, properties, relations and sets [Dorr]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 5. Class Nominalism
Natural Class Nominalism says there are primitive classes of things resembling in one respect [Dorr]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 2. Abstract Objects / a. Nature of abstracta
Structuralists call a mathematical 'object' simply a 'place in a structure' [Friend]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 3. Objects in Thought
Late Frege saw his non-actual objective objects as exclusively thoughts and senses [Frege, by Dummett]
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 11. Denial of Necessity
Abstracta imply non-logical brute necessities, so only nominalists can deny such things [Dorr]
17. Mind and Body / E. Mind as Physical / 2. Reduction of Mind
Studying biology presumes the laws of chemistry, and it could never contradict them [Friend]
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 1. Thought
We grasp thoughts (thinking), decide they are true (judgement), and manifest the judgement (assertion) [Frege]
Thoughts have their own realm of reality - 'sense' (as opposed to the realm of 'reference') [Frege, by Dummett]
A thought is distinguished from other things by a capacity to be true or false [Frege, by Dummett]
18. Thought / A. Modes of Thought / 9. Indexical Thought
Thoughts about myself are understood one way to me, and another when communicated [Frege]
18. Thought / D. Concepts / 1. Concepts / a. Nature of concepts
Concepts can be presented extensionally (as objects) or intensionally (as a characterization) [Friend]
19. Language / D. Propositions / 2. Abstract Propositions / a. Propositions as sense
A 'thought' is something for which the question of truth can arise; thoughts are senses of sentences [Frege]
19. Language / D. Propositions / 5. Unity of Propositions
A sentence is only a thought if it is complete, and has a time-specification [Frege]