Questions tagged [mathematical-philosophy]

Philosophical aspects of logic and set theory; truth status of mathematical axioms; Philosophy of Mathematics; philosophical aspects of mathematics in general; relation of mathematics to philosophy; etc. Consider also posting at http://philosophy.stackexchange.com/, where philosophy-of-mathematics is one of the most popular tags.

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Can the Kunen inconsistency (or the existence of Reinhardt cardinals) be 'properly formulated' in Ackermann set theory?

In their paper "Generalizations of the Kunen Inconsistency" (arXiv:1106.1951v1 [math.LO]10 Jun. 2011), Hamkins, Kirmayer, and Perlmutter write the following: The first [metamathematical issue--my ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
277 views

Critical points and the Foundation Axiom

(Note: This question is related to my previous mathoverflow question, "Critical Points in $ZF$ without Choice".) In the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry "Non-Wellfounded Set Theory" (...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

Unreasonable application of mathematics to the other areas [closed]

What are some papers or talks on the philosophy of mathematics which contains some statements about the unnecessary and unreasonable application of mathematics in other areas of science? I found ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
40 votes
4 answers
7k views

Did Euler prove theorems by example?

In his 2014 book, Giovanni Ferraro writes at beginning of chapter 1, section 1 on page 7: Capitolo I Esempi e metodi dimostrativi Introduzione In The Calculus as Algebraic Analysis, Craig Fraser, ...
1 vote
0 answers
256 views

Can Dedekind's 'proof' of the existence of infinite sets be properly formulated and carried out in positive set theory?

This question is related to Mikhail Katz's recent mathoverflow question, "Has Dedekind's proof of the existence of existence of infinite sets been analyzed by historians?". Dedekind's 'proof' seems (...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
140 views

Can Basic Law $V$ be derived from Leibniz's Law in Second-Order Logic without comprehension principles?

Consider Basic Law $V$: $\hat x$$F$($x$)=$\hat x$$G$($x$)$\equiv$($\forall$$x$)($F$$x$$\equiv$$G$$x$) At first glance, it seems to have the same form as Leibniz's law $x$=$y$$\equiv$($\forall$$F$)($...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
3k views

Has Dedekind's proof of existence of infinite sets been analyzed by historians?

This pdf by David Joyce notes that in paragraph 66 of his famous essay, Dedekind claims to prove the existence of an infinite set. The proof exploits the assumption that there exists a set $S$ of all ...
Mikhail Katz's user avatar
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38 votes
2 answers
5k views

Why is this new result such a big deal?

This popular article reports a recent result in reverse mathematics, showing that a certain theorem in Ramsey theory is provable from RCA$_0$, the base theory in SOSOA. Then there are a bunch of ...
none's user avatar
  • 381
2 votes
2 answers
456 views

What are the sense and reference of the propositions $R \notin R$, $R \in R$, where $R=\{x \mid x \notin x\}$ in Frege's Grundgesetze?

In the paper, Aldo Antonelli and Robert May, Frege's new science, Notre Dame J. Form. Log. 41 (2000), no. 3, 242–-270, MR 1943495. the authors give the following quote of Frege, from his paper "&...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
46 votes
5 answers
8k views

Mathematicians with aphantasia (inability to visualize things in one's mind)

Are there any mathematicians with aphantasia? If so, could they please elaborate upon what their experience with mathematics is like? I realize that this question probably falls outside of the scope ...
1 vote
1 answer
507 views

Have some works by Émile Borel ever been translated from French to English or another foreign language?

I plan to submit a couple of questions around Émile Borel's works in probability theory to MO. In this scope, I'd like to know if the following works have ever been translated from French to English ...
Fabrice Pautot's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
935 views

Identity types: What makes Intuitionistic Type Theory *intuitionistic*?

In the opening passage of Martin-Löf's (1975) he famously says that "the theory of types with which we shall be concerned is intended to be a full scale system for formalizing intuitionistic ...
StudentType's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
724 views

Is there a class of mathematical structures with non-isomorphic natural representations as a standard Borel space?

Background. The field of Borel equivalence relation theory provides a robust, unifying theory that organizes most of the classification problems of classical mathematics into a hierarchy, allowing us ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
793 views

Are there 'finitistic' nonrecursive functions (assuming Church's Thesis is false)?

[Note: In what follows, I will be using the same type of argument Laszlo Kalmar did in his paper "An Argument Against the Plausibility of Church's Thesis" found in Constructivity in Mathematics, (...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can Turing machines clarify mathematical, philosophical, and physical existence?

From Harvey Friedman's manuscript on "Order Invariant Relations and Incompleteness": DEFINITION 4.4. A $\Pi_1^0$ sentence is a sentence asserting that some given Turing machine never halts at the ...
Thomas Klimpel's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

The universe of sets, existential quantification in set theory

Yesterday, I posted a question that was received in a different way than I intended it. I would like to ask it again by adding some context. In ZF one can prove $\not\exists x (\forall y (y\in x)).$ ...
2 votes
1 answer
575 views

In what sense is the "descending chain principle" for ordinals less than $\epsilon_0$ 'infinitary?

In the introduction to his paper "Assignment of Ordinals to Terms for Primitive Recursive Functionals of Finite Type", W.A. Howard writes: Gentzen...showed that the consistency of first order (...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
362 views

The theory of frames and locales as elementary topology [closed]

In What is elementary geometry? (pdf) Alfred Tarski defined elementary geometry to be that part of Euclidean geometry which can be formulated and established without the help of any set-...
Rafał Gruszczyński's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
516 views

About the "semi-classical" view of Prof. Weaver and Prof. Feferman [closed]

In the thread "Is platonism regarding arithmetic consistent with the multiverse view in set theory?", Prof. Hamkins writes: The view you are suggesting is something close to what is held by Solomon ...
7 votes
1 answer
827 views

Taller models of ZFC

This question is somewhat related to a previous one, where I asked for new forms of infinite beyond the cardinal hierarchy. Using forcing techniques, at least the ones I know of, one starts from a ...
Mirco A. Mannucci's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is platonism regarding arithmetic consistent with the multiverse view in set theory?

A "truth" platonist for arithmetic believes, given a statement in the language of arithmetic, that the problem whether the statement is true has a definite answer. Prof. Hamkins has argued for a ...
AEWARG's user avatar
  • 213
1 vote
1 answer
361 views

What restriction(s) of Goedel's primitive recursive functionals is (are) necessary and sufficient to prove the consistency of $PRA$

It is well known that one can use Goedel's primitive recursive functionals of finite type to prove the consistency of $PA$ (Peano Arithmetic). As such, one can certainly use them to prove the ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
3k views

What does the axiom of replacement mean and why should I believe it?

Here Professor Blass describes the following cumulative hierarchy of sets: Begin with some non-set entities called atoms ("some" could be "none" if you want a world consisting exclusively of sets), ...
djafe's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the modern consensus on the difficulty of infinitesimals?

At a related thread at MSE an expert in reverse mathematics noted that "As the modern consensus is that only nonstandard models have infinitesimals, it will be quite challenging to give a concrete ...
Mikhail Katz's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
311 views

A question regarding the consistency of Nelson's Predicative Arithmetic

Following Dan Willard (from his paper "Self-Verifying Axiom Systems, the Incompleteness Theorem, and Related Reflection Systems", found on his homepage, pdf here): "Define an axiom ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
852 views

Arguments against Freiling's argument against Continuum Hypothesis

Freiling's axiom of symmetry ($\sf AS$) is known as a justification for falsity of Continuum Hypothesis. Freiling in his 1986 paper, Axioms of symmetry: throwing darts at the real number line, ...
Morteza Azad's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
741 views

Does mathematical induction presuppose the existence of a completed infinity?

Consider the following statement by Edward Nelson--this from the "Outline" of his 'proof' of the inconsistency of $PA$ (which Terry Tao found to contain an error): "The induction axiom ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
168 views

Some questions regarding an alteration of Grzegorczyk's theory of concatenation, $\operatorname{TC}$

Consider Grzegorczyk's concatenation theory $\operatorname{TC}$, a "weak theory of words over the two letter alphabet $\Sigma=\{a,b\}$" (this from Grzegorczyk and Zdanowski's paper Undecidability and ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
531 views

Was "arithmetical translation" (coding in the Goedel sense) ever a part of Hilbert's Program?

Was "arithmetical translation" (that is, coding in the Goedel sense) ever a part of Hilbert's Program? I ask this question for several reasons: i) it gives the numerals |, ||, |||,.... an ersatz '...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
679 views

Examples of abstractions that did *not* turn out to be useful [closed]

I’ve read (but cannot find any reference now) that new abstract mathematical concepts like set theory and – not too long ago – category theory were in their time often considered too abstract to be ...
69 votes
5 answers
9k views

What was Hilbert's view of Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems?

According to Solomon Feferman, in his slide presentation "Three Problems for Mathematics", Hilbert wrote (in regards to Gödel's second incompleteness theorem): ...the end goal [is] to establish as ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
132 views

A question regarding an analogue of the Kleene $T$-predicate for Koepke's ordinal computability

Does Koepke's notion of ordinal computability admit an analogue of the Kleene $T$-predicate? If so, is the existence of such a $T$-predicate independent of $ZFC$? Also, if one assumes the existence ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
81 views

Which self-reference restrictions can be weakened in probabilstic logic?

This work suggests that there is some generalization of Truth in terms of probability, which can be definable within the logic itself. Is where any other thorems on self-reference restrictions, which ...
uhbif19's user avatar
  • 123
56 votes
8 answers
9k views

Why should we believe in the axiom of regularity?

Today I started reading Maddy's Believing the axioms. As I knew beforehand, it includes some discussion of ZFC axioms. However, I really hoped for a more extensive discussion of axiom of foundation/...
Wojowu's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
561 views

A question regarding the relation between Freiling's Axiom of Symmetry and real-valued measurable cardnals

A major argument against Freiling's Axiom of Symmetry is the following (this from the wikipedia article of the same name): "The naive probabalistic notion used by Freiling tacitly assumes that there ...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
538 views

Information theory from negative probability

Szekely provides a convincing argument of negative probability here: http://www.wilmott.com/pdfs/100609_gjs.pdf What does a reformulation of classical information theory built from negative ...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.7k
1 vote
1 answer
434 views

A question regarding extendible cardinals and a result of M. Magidor

The following definitions and Theorems come from M. Magidor's paper "On the Role of Supercompact and Extendible Cardinals in Logic" (Israel J. Math., Vol. 10, 1971): "Definition: Logic is called $\...
Thomas Benjamin's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
376 views

Plausibility argument for a measurable cardinal

The following question is not mathematically precise but perhaps of some philosophical interest. A typical plausibility argument for assuming the existence of inaccessible cardinals goes as follows: ...
Henry's user avatar
  • 41
2 votes
1 answer
843 views

Is second-order ZFC categorical with regard to its proper class models

Second-order ZFC offers partial categoricity in the sense that, given any two models, one of them must be isomorphic to an initial segment of the other [1]. However, this leaves questions regarding ...
Andy's user avatar
  • 95
33 votes
8 answers
6k views

Uninteresting questions with interesting answers [closed]

What are best examples of questions in mathematics that are not interesting until one knows the answers, whose answers themselves are what is interesting? The thing that prompts me to post this is ...
20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Philosophical arguments in defense (or against) large cardinals

The question is essentially what is asked in the title. I split it into two parts (A) (Arguments supporting the existence of large cardinals) What are the main philosophical arguments in defense of ...
7 votes
1 answer
406 views

Is $ACA_0$ + `True Arithmetic exists' interpretable in $ACA$?

Maybe someone here can help me with a question concerning second-order arithmetic. Consider the system $ACA_T := ACA_0 + \exists X \forall x (x \in X \leftrightarrow T(x))$, where $T(x)$ is a $\Pi_1^1$...
Günther's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

nonstandard models and mathematical theorems

Is there a first order statement about the natural numbers (not nonstandard analysis) such that the truth of the statement is easier to see in a nonstandard model? In other words, do nonstandard ...
Thinniyam Srinivasan Ramanatha's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
5k views

Is there a compendium of the consistency strength between the most important formal theories?

Preliminar Notions: A formal system is a tuple $(\Sigma,G,A,R)$ where $\Sigma$ is an alphabet (set of symbols), $G$ is a formal grammar on $\Sigma$ that generates a formal language $L$ (set of well ...
Jonathan Julian's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
409 views

Interpretation of Shannon Entropy Application

Consider a collection of increasing positive integers $\{a_i\}_{i=1}^m$ and the distribution $p_i=\frac{a_i}{\sum_{i=1}^ma_i}$. Let entropy of $\mathcal{A}=\{a_i\}_{i=1}^m$ be given by $$H(\mathcal{A}...
Turbo's user avatar
  • 13.7k
7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Extensionality in HoTT versus extensionality in internal language of a category

What's the extension of judgmental identity in HoTT (homotopy type theory)? The Martin-Löf intensional dependent type theory with identity types is called (definitionally) extensional if the ...
user40276's user avatar
  • 2,199
150 votes
26 answers
38k views

Has philosophy ever clarified mathematics?

I've recently been reading some standard textbooks on the philosophy of mathematics, and I've become quite frustrated that (surely due to my own limitations) I don't seem to be gleaning any ...
9 votes
2 answers
1k views

The impact of large cardinals in mathematics [closed]

What are the main applications of large cardinals in ordinary mathematics, and what is the philosophy behind using them. In particular: Question 1. What is the philosophy behind accepting large ...
Mohammad Golshani's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
2k views

Time in Girard's Geometry of Interaction

Jean-Yves Girard writes at the end of his paper "Towards a Geometry of Interaction", page 105, that we have three intuitions about the nature of time: time is logic modulo the order of rules, time ...
Trent's user avatar
  • 999
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can we define an "empirically generic" real number?

Summary: My question, in a nutshell, is how we should intuitively imagine a generic real number (as opposed to a random one), and whether we can construct numbers which empirically behave like generic ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
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