Logic and Foundations Commons^™

Philosophy Of Mathematics: Theories And Defense, Amy E. Maffit

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In this paper I discuss six philosophical theories of mathematics including logicism, intuitionism, formalism, platonism, structuralism, and moderate realism. I also discuss problems that arise within these theories and attempts to solve them. Finally, I attempt to harmonize the best features of moderate realism and structuralism, presenting a theory that I take to best describe current mathematical practice.

On The Indispensable Premises Of The Indispensability Argument, Andrea Sereni, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

We identify four different minimal versions of the indispensability argument, falling under four different varieties: an epistemic argument for semantic realism, an epistemic argument for platonism and a non-epistemic version of both. We argue that most current formulations of the argument can be reconstructed by building upon the suggested minimal versions. Part of our discussion relies on a clarification of the notion of (in)dispensability as relational in character. We then present some substantive consequences of our inquiry for the philosophical significance of the indispensability argument, the most relevant of which being that both naturalism and confirmational holism can be dispensed …

Euler, Reader Of Newton: Mechanics And Algebraic Analysis, Sébastien Maronne, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

We follow two of the many paths leading from Newton’s to Euler’s scientific productions, and give an account of Euler’s role in the reception of some of Newton’s ideas, as regards two major topics: mechanics and algebraic analysis. Euler contributed to a re-appropriation of Newtonian science, though transforming it in many relevant aspects. We study this re-appropriation with respect to the mentioned topics and show that it is grounded on the development of Newton’s conceptions within a new conceptual frame also influenced by Descartes’s views sand Leibniz’s formalism.

From Velocities To Fluxions, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

"Though the De Methodis results, for its essential structure and content, from a re-elaboration of a previous unfinished treatise composed in the Fall of 1666—now known, after Whiteside, as The October 1666 tract on fluxions ([22], I, pp. 400-448)—, the introduction of the term ‘fluxion’ goes together with an important conceptual change concerned with Newton’s understanding of his own achievements. I shall argue that this change marks a crucial step in the origins of analysis, conceived as an autonomous mathematical theory."

Prove It!, Kenny W. Moran

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A dialogue between a mathematics professor, Frank, and his daughter, Sarah, a mathematical savant with a powerful mathematical intuition. Sarah's intuition allows her to stumble into some famous theorems from number theory, but her lack of academic mathematical background makes it difficult for her to understand Frank's insistence on the value of proof and formality.

Lagrange's Theory Of Analytical Functions And His Ideal Of Purity Of Method, Giovanni Ferraro, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

We reconstruct essential features of Lagrange’s theory of analytical functions by exhibiting its structure and basic assumptions, as well as its main shortcomings. We explain Lagrange’s notions of function and algebraic quantity, and we concentrate on power-series expansions, on the algorithm for derivative functions, and the remainder theorem—especially on the role this theorem has in solving geometric and mechanical problems. We thus aim to provide a better understanding of Enlightenment mathematics and to show that the foundations of mathematics did not, for Lagrange, concern the solidity of its ultimate bases, but rather purity of method—the generality and internal organization of …

Rethinking Geometrical Exactness, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

A crucial concern of early modern geometry was fixing appropriate norms for deciding whether some objects, procedures, or arguments should or should not be allowed into it. According to Bos, this is the exactness concern. I argue that Descartes’s way of responding to this concern was to suggest an appropriate conservative extension of Euclid’s plane geometry (EPG). In Section 2, I outline the exactness concern as, I think, it appeared to Descartes. In Section 3, I account for Descartes’s views on exactness and for his attitude towards the most common sorts of constructions in classical geometry. I also explain in …

Breathing Fresh Air Into The Philosophy Of Mathematics, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

A review of Paolo Mancosu (ed.): The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice.

Agnostic Science. Towards A Philosophy Of Data Analysis, Domenico Napoletani, Marco Panza, Daniele C. Struppa

MPP Published Research

In this paper we will offer a few examples to illustrate the orientation of contemporary research in data analysis and we will investigate the corresponding role of mathematics. We argue that the modus operandi of data analysis is implicitly based on the belief that if we have collected enough and sufficiently diverse data, we will be able to answer most relevant questions concerning the phenomenon itself. This is a methodological paradigm strongly related, but not limited to, biology, and we label it the microarray paradigm. In this new framework, mathematics provides powerful techniques and general ideas which generate new …

Is The Notion Of Mathematical Object An Historical Notion?, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

"Both historians and philosophers of mathematics frequently speak of mathematical objects. Are they speaking of the same or of similar things? Better: are they appealing to the same notion or to similar notions?"

The Role Of Algebraic Inferences In Naîm Ibn Mûsa’S Collection Of Geometrical Propositions, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

Na‘im ibn Musa's lived in Baghdad in the second half of the 9th century. He was probably not a major mathematician. Still his Collection of geometrical propositions---recently edited and translated in French by Roshdi Rashed and Christian Houzel---reflects quite well the mathematical practice that was common in Thabit ibn Qurra's school. A relevant characteristic of Na‘im's treatise is its large use of a form of inferences that can be said ‘algebric' in a sense that will be explained. They occur both in proofs of theorems and in solutions of problems. In the latter case, they enter different sorts of problematic …

A Philosophical Examination Of Proofs In Mathematics, Eric Almeida

Undergraduate Review

No abstract provided.

François Viète, Between Analysis And Cryptanalysis, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

François Viète is considered the father both of modern algebra and of modern cryptanalysis. The paper outlines Viète's major contributions in these two mathematical fields and argues that, despite an obvious parallel between them, there is an essential difference. Viète's 'new algebra' relies on his reform of the classical method of analysis and synthesis, in particular on a new conception of analysis and the introduction of a new formalism. The procedures he suggests to decrypt coded messages are particular forms of analysis based on the use of formal methods. However, Viète's algebraic analysis is not an analysis in the same …

Some Sober Conceptions Of Mathematical Truth, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

It is not sufficient to supply an instance of Tarski’s schema, ⌈“p” is true if and only if p⌉ for a certain statement in order to get a definition of truth for this statement and thus fix a truth-condition for it. A definition of the truth of a statement x of a language L is a bi-conditional whose two members are two statements of a meta-language L’. Tarski’s schema simply suggests that a definition of truth for a certain segment x of a language L consists in a statement of the form: ⌈v(x) is true if and only if τ(x)⌉, …

Tesselland: A Mathematical Oddment, Martin Glover

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Bridging To Infinity, Mike Pinter

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

The author's own experiences as a mathematics student and teacher have influenced how he thinks about the infinite. Author Madeleine L'Engle has also shaped his thinking with her writing. The author offers some thoughts that connect some of L'Engle's writing with his experience.

Mathematics, The Liberal Arts, And Slavish Devotions, J. D. Phillips

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Developing Into Series And Returning From Series: A Note On The Foundations Of Eighteenth-Century Analysis, Giovanni Ferraro, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

In this paper we investigate two problems concerning the theory of power series in 18th-century mathematics: the development of a given function into a power series and the inverse problem, the return from a given power series to the function of which this power series is the development. The way of conceiving and solving these problems closely depended on the notion of function and in particular on the conception of a series as the result of a formal transformation of a function. After describing the procedures considered acceptable by 18th-century mathematicians, we examine in detail the different strategies—both direct and …

Notes On Formal Constructivism, D. Joyner, P. Lejarraga

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

Our aim is to sketch some ideas related to how we (as in, we two) think we (as in, we humans) think. "That theory is useless. It isn't even wrong." - Wolfgang Pauli. Our hope in this paper is to provide a theory, admittedly somewhat vague, of how we think about mathematics. We also hope our ideas do not cause the reader to be reminded of Pauli's quote above. These notes were motivated by the interesting book by Changeaux and Connes.

Mathematisation Of The Science Of Motion And The Birth Of Analytical Mechanics : A Historiographical Note, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

Usually, one speaks of mathematization of a natural or social science to mean that mathematics comes to be a tool of such a science: the language of mathematics is used to formulate its results, and/or some mathematical techniques is employed to obtain these results.

Fivefolded Asymmetrical Hand: A Poetic Essay, S. Robert Wilson

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

What "Is" Mathematics?: In Memoriam Of Gian-Carlo Rota, Gian-Carlo Rota

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Abstracting Aristotle’S Philosophy Of Mathematics, John J. Cleary

Research Resources

In the history of science perhaps the most influential Aristotelian division was that

between mathematics and physics. From our modern perspective this seems like an unfortunate deviation from the Platonic unification of the two disciplines, which guided Kepler and Galileo towards the modern scientific revolution. By contrast, Aristotle’s sharp distinction between the disciplines seems to have led to a barren scholasticism in physics, together with an arid instrumentalism in Ptolemaic astronomy. On the positive side, however, astronomy was liberated from commonsense realism for the conceptual experiments of Aristarchus of Samos, whose heliocentric hypothesis was not adopted by later astronomers because …

La Révolution Scientifique, Les Révolutions, Et L'Histoire Des Sciences. Comment Ernest Coumet Nous A Libérés De L'Héritage D'Alexandre Koyré, Marco Panza

MPP Published Research

Dans son intervention au colloque Koyré (Paris, 1986), Ernest Coumet a suggéré que le terme «révolution scientifique» ne désigne pas chez Koyré un événement historique, mais un idéaltype, au sens de Max Weber. L'auteur discute d'abord cette thèse de Coumet et expose les arguments que ce dermier apporte pour la soutenir. Dans la deuxième partie de l'article, il critique l'usage de la notion de révolution en histoire des sciences, en s'opposant en particulier à la possibilité de distinguer dans les productions des savants une «pensée scientifique» qui serait influencée par la «pensée philosophique» et dont les bouleversements marqueraient l'avènement d'une …

Dialectics And The Dao: On Both, A And Non-A In Neutrosophy And Chinese Philosophy, Feng Liu, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This paper introduces readers to a new approach to dialectical logic: neutrosophy. Specifically it proposes a multi-valued logic in which the statement “both A and Non-A,” historically rejected as logically incoherent, is treated as meaningful. This unity of opposites constitutes both the objective world and the subjective world –a view with deep roots in Buddhism and Daoism, including the I-Ching. This leads in turn to the presentation of a framework for the development of a contradiction oriented learning philosophy inspired by the Later Trigrams of King Wen in the I-Ching. We show that although A and Non-A are logically inconsistent, …

A Reflection On The Word: Remembering The Word “Word” Is Reflexive, Paul Fjelstad, Ivan Ginchev

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

An Informal History Of Classical Rhetoric For Mathematicians (Plato And Aristotle), Phillip Keith, Sandra Z. Keith

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Leibniz: His Philosophy And His Calculi, Eric Ditwiler

Humanistic Mathematics Network Journal

No abstract provided.