Cover image for Mathematical Knowledge.
Mathematical Knowledge.
Title:
Mathematical Knowledge.
Author:
Leng, Mary.
ISBN:
9780191527890
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (199 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Preface -- List of contributors -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Benacerraf's worry -- 2 Mathematical knowers and mathematical knowledge -- What is the problem of mathematical knowledge? -- 1 What is distinctive about the mathematical case? -- 2 Implicationism all the way down? -- 3 Mother theories -- 4 Understanding and truth -- 5 Why externalism? -- 6 The route to knowledge -- 7 Benacerraf's problem -- 8 Benacerraf's problem generalized -- 9 The real problem -- Mathematics, Memory, and Mental Arithmetic -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The problem of induction in mathematics -- 3 The seemingly inappropriate use of modal language by mathematicians -- 4 Explicating informal mathematical terminology -- 5 Memory -- 6 Direct memory, competence, and generated memory -- 7 Two proofs and how one remembers them -- 8 Mental arithmetic and the concept of width -- 9 How does the notion of width apply to proofs? -- 10 Concluding remarks -- Is there a problem of induction for mathematics? -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Enumerative induction and discovery -- 3 The descriptive question: Two case studies -- 4 Hume's problem of induction -- 5 The normative question: Is enumerative induction in mathematics rationally justified? -- 6 Re-examining the descriptive question -- 7 Conclusions -- The cognitive basis of mathematical knowledge -- 1 Numerical cognition is innate and distinct from other cognitive skills -- 2 Numbers and language -- 3 Different uses of the same numeral -- 4 Limits of cognitive science -- 5 Concluding remarks -- What's there to know? -- 1 Trading ontology for modality -- 2 Fictionalism and nominalism -- 3 A new Benacerraf problem? -- 4 A new indispensability argument? -- 5 Defending the consistency of ZFC and PA -- 6 Conclusion -- Mathematical recreation versus mathematical knowledge -- 1 Empiricism in the philosophy of mathematics.

2 An empiricist account of mathematical knowledge -- 3 Unapplied mathematics as mathematical recreation -- 4 Is all mathematics recreation? -- 5 Empiricism revisited -- Scientific Platonism -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Preliminaries -- 3 The pragmatic and indifference objections -- 4 Weak and strong scientific platonism -- 5 For the indifference objection -- 6 The publication test -- 7 General principles of scientific method -- 8 Scientific grounds and the actual content of mathematics -- 9 Conclusion -- On quantifying into predicate position -- 1 Basic idea and project outline -- 2 Fixing the meanings of the quantifiers -- 3 Extreme neutralism -- 4 A neutralist heuristic -- 5 Comprehension -- 6 Incompleteness -- 7 Impredicativity -- 8 Appendix: Abstractionist Mathematical Theories -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.
Abstract:
What is the nature of mathematical knowledge? Is it anything like scientific knowledge or is it sui generis? How do we acquire it? Should we believe what mathematicians themselves tell us about it? Are mathematical concepts innate or acquired? Eight new essays offer answers to these and many other questions.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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