Philosophy of Mathematics

The final exam will be of the same basic format as the midterm. It will be cumulative. You will be required to answer some questions about material before the midterm and some about material after the midterm. The notes policy will also be the same as that of the midterm: open notes, including printouts of my online notes; closed book. That suggests that it is a good idea to have good notes.

Your exam grade is only 20% of your overall grade. If your curved grade on the final is greater than that on the midterm, I drop the midterm. Otherwise the exam grade is the average of the curved grades on the two exams.

If you wish to submit a new first paper for a higher grade, come talk to me. I shall decide whether to allow it on a case by case basis. more

PhilosophyofMathematicsSyllabus2007

Lecture Notes

PhilosophyofMathematicsFirstLecture
FregeonArithmetic
RussellonArithmetic
CurryFormalism
GAP
LogicismIntuitionismFormalism
BenacerrafWhatNumbersCouldNotBe
BernaysPlatonisminMathematics
GodelWhatIsCantorsContinuumHypothesis
PoincareOntheNatureofMathematicalReasoning
CorcoranConceptualStructureofClassicalLogic
IsomorphismandStructuralism
FirstOrdervsSecondOrderLogicandCategoricity
SomeTheoremsConcerningFirstOrderLogic
ModelsandReality

Balaguer

IntroductionandPlatonistResponsetoEpistemologicalChallengeContact
PlatonistResponsetoEpistemologicalChallengeNoContact
PlenitudinousPlatonism
NonUniqueness
FregeAgainstAntiPlatonism
DispensingwithMathematics
FictionalistApplicabilitywithoutDispensability
FictionalistExplanationofApplicabilityandPlatonistReplytoOckham
NoAnswer

-- ShaughanLavine - 06 Jan 2007