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109Lógica, lenguajes formales y modalidadAndamios 20 (53): 45-60. 2023.This paper examines two alleged limitations in the use of formal languages: on the one hand, the trade-offs between expressive and inferential power, and on the other, the phenomenon of system imprisonment. After reconceptualizing the issue, we consider the role played by modality in the understanding of certain aspects of mathematical structures and argue for its centrality.
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128Resisting easy inferencesPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 102 (3): 729-735. 2021.Amie Thomasson has articulated a novel conception of ontological debates, defending an easy approach to ontological questions as part of the articulation of a deflationary metaphysical view (Thomasson, 2015). After raising some concerns to the approach, we sketch a neutralist alternative to her ontological framework, offering an even easier way of conducting ontological debates.
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75Putnam’s indispensability argument revisited, reassessed, revivedTheoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 33 (2): 201-218. 2018.Crucial to Hilary Putnam’s realism in the philosophy of mathematics is to maintain the objectivity of mathematics without the commitment to the existence of mathematical objects. Putnam’s indispensability argument was devised as part of this conception. In this paper, I reconstruct and reassess Putnam’s argument for the indispensability of mathematics, and distinguish it from the more familiar, Quinean version of the argument. Although I argue that Putnam’s approach ultimately fails, I develop a…Read more
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88Scientific Theories, Models and the Semantic ApproachPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 11 (2): 187-201. 2007.According to the semantic view, a theory is characterized by a class of models. In this paper, we examine critically some of the assumptions that underlie this approach. First, we recall that models are models of something. Thus we cannot leave completely aside the axiomatization of the theories under consideration, nor can we ignore the metamathematics used to elaborate these models, for changes in the metamathematics often impose restrictions on the resulting models. Second, based on a paralle…Read more
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1007On what it takes for there to be no fact of the matterNoûs 42 (4): 753-769. 2008.Philosophers are very fond of making non-factualist claims—claims to the effect that there is no fact of the matter as to whether something is the case. But can these claims be coherently stated in the context of classical logic? Some care is needed here, we argue, otherwise one ends up denying a tautology or embracing a contradiction. In the end, we think there are only two strategies available to someone who wants to be a non-factualist about something, and remain within the province of classi…Read more
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56A coherence theory of truth/Uma teoria coerentista da verdadeManuscrito 30 (2): 539-568. 2007.In this paper, we provide a new formulation of a coherence theory of truth using the resources of the partial structures approach − in particular the notions of partial structure and quasi-truth. After developing this new formulation, we apply the resulting theory to the philosophy of mathematics, and argue that it can be used to develop a new account of nominalism in mathematics. This application illustrates the strength and usefulness of the proposed formulation of a coherence theory of truth.…Read more
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1072Central to the philosophical understanding of music is the status of musical works. According to the Platonist, musical works are abstract objects; that is, they are not located in space or time, and we have no causal access to them. Moreover, only a particular physical occurrence of these musical works is instantiated when a performance ofthe latter takes place. But even if no performance ever took place, the Platonist insists, the musical work would still exist, since its existence is not tied…Read more
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95Representation at the NanoscalePhilosophy of Science 73 (5): 617-628. 2006.In this paper, I provide an account of scientific representation that makes sense of the notion both at the nanoscale and at the quantum level: the partial mappings account. The account offers an extension of a proposal developed by R. I. G. Hughes in terms of denotation, demonstration, and interpretation (DDI). I first argue that the DDI account needs some amendments to accommodate representation of nano and quantum phenomena. I then introduce a generalized framework with the notions of unsharp…Read more
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14Partial Truth and Visual Evidence DOI:10.5007/1808-1711.2011v15n2p249Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology 15 (2): 249-270. 2011.Newton da Costa and Steven French have argued that the concept of partial truth plays an important role in our understanding of significant aspects of scientific practice: from the status of scientific theories through the understanding of inconsistency in science to the nature of induction. In this paper, I use the concept of partial truth and the associated framework of partial structures to offer a formulation of the concept of visual evidence, and I examine some of the roles that this notion…Read more
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1Fitch's paradox and the philosophy of mathematicsIn Joe Salerno (ed.), New Essays on the Knowability Paradox, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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250Stance and rationality: a perspectiveSynthese 178 (1): 1-5. 2011.We offer an overview of some ways of examining the connections between stance and rationality, by surveying recent work on four central topics: the very idea of a stance, the relations between stances and voluntarism, the metaphysics and epistemology that emerge once stances are brought to center stage, and the role that emotions and phenomenology play in the empirical stance
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65Partial Truth and Visual EvidencePrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology 15 (2): 249. 2011.Newton da Costa and Steven French have argued that the concept of partial truth plays an important role in our understanding of significant aspects of scientific practice: from the status of scientific theories through the understanding of inconsistency in science to the nature of induction (see da Costa and French 2003). In this paper, I use the concept of partial truth and the associated framework of partial structures to offer a formulation of the concept of visual evidence, and I examine som…Read more
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18Von Neumann, Self-reproduction and the constitution of nanophenomenaIn Baird D. (ed.), Discovering the Nanoscale, Ios. pp. 101--115. 2004.
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901Dirac and the dispensability of mathematicsStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 36 (3): 465-490. 2005.In this paper, 1 examine the role of the delta function in Dirac’s formulation of quantum mechanics (QM), and I discuss, more generally, the role of mathematics in theory construction. It has been argued that mathematical theories play an indispensable role in physics, particularly in QM [Colyvan, M. (2001). The inrlispensability of mathematics. Oxford University Press: Oxford]. As I argue here, at least in the case of the delta function, Dirac was very clear about its rlispensability. I first d…Read more
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432Scientific representation: A long journey from pragmatics to pragmatics Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11016-010-9465-5 Authors James Ladyman, Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, 9 Woodland Rd, Bristol, BS8 1TB UK Otávio Bueno, Department of Philosophy, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL 33124, USA Mauricio Suárez, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain Bas C. van Fraassen, Philosophy Department, San Francis…Read more
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52New waves in philosophy of mathematics (edited book)Palgrave-Macmillan. 2009.Thirteen up-and-coming researchers in the philosophy of mathematics have been invited to write on what they take to be the right philosophical account of mathematics, examining along the way where they think the philosophy of mathematics is and ought to be going. A rich and diverse picture emerges. Some broader tendencies can nevertheless be detected: there is increasing attention to the practice, language and psychology of mathematics, a move to reassess the orthodoxy, as well as inspiration fr…Read more
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582Truth and proofManuscrito 31 (1): 419-440. 2008.Current versions of nominalism in the philosophy of mathematics face a significant problem to understand mathematical knowledge. They are unable to characterize mathematical knowledge as knowledge of the objects mathematical theories are taken to be about. Oswaldo Chateaubriand’s insightful reformulation of Platonism (Chateaubriand 2005) avoids this problem by advancing a broader conception of knowledge as justified truth beyond a reasonable doubt, and by introducing a suitable characterization …Read more
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96Bas C. van Fraassen, The Empirical Stance. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002 (review)Metascience 12 (3): 360-363. 2003.
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157Suppes Predicates for Space-TimeSynthese 112 (2): 271-279. 1997.We formulate Suppes predicates for various kinds of space-time: classical Euclidean, Minkowski's, and that of General Relativity. Starting with topological properties, these continua are mathematically constructed with the help of a basic algebra of events; this algebra constitutes a kind of mereology, in the sense of Lesniewski. There are several alternative, possible constructions, depending, for instance, on the use of the common field of reals or of a non-Archimedian field (with infinitesima…Read more
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73Structural empiricism, againIn Alisa Bokulich & Peter Bokulich (eds.), Scientific Structuralism, Springer Science+business Media. pp. 81--103. 2010.
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204A Defense of Second-Order LogicAxiomathes 20 (2-3): 365-383. 2010.Second-order logic has a number of attractive features, in particular the strong expressive resources it offers, and the possibility of articulating categorical mathematical theories (such as arithmetic and analysis). But it also has its costs. Five major charges have been launched against second-order logic: (1) It is not axiomatizable; as opposed to first-order logic, it is inherently incomplete. (2) It also has several semantics, and there is no criterion to choose between them (Putnam, J Sym…Read more
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799Just what is vagueness?Ratio 25 (1): 19-33. 2012.We argue that standard definitions of ‘vagueness’ prejudice the question of how best to deal with the phenomenon of vagueness. In particular, the usual understanding of ‘vagueness’ in terms of borderline cases, where the latter are thought of as truth-value gaps, begs the question against the subvaluational approach. According to this latter approach, borderline cases are inconsistent (i.e., glutty not gappy). We suggest that a definition of ‘vagueness’ should be general enough to accommodate an…Read more
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29Remarks on abstract Galois theoryManuscrito 34 (1): 151-183. 2011.This paper is a historical companion to a previous one, in which it was studied the so-called abstract Galois theory as formulated by the Portuguese mathematician José Sebastião e Silva ). Our purpose is to present some applications of abstract Galois theory to higher-order model theory, to discuss Silva’s notion of expressibility and to outline a classical Galois theory that can be obtained inside the two versions of the abstract theory, those of Mark Krasner and of Silva. Some comments are mad…Read more
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2Book reviews (review)History and Philosophy of Logic 19 (4): 267-277. 1998.Michael Dummett, Frege and other philosophers. Oxford:Clarendon Press, 1991. xii + 330pp. £35. ISBN W.Balzer and C.U.Moulines, Structuralist theory of science:focal issues, new results, Berlin; de Gruyter, 1996. xi + 295 pp.DM 210. ISBN 3-11-014075-6 Henry Prakken, Logical tools for modeling legal argument a study of defeasible reasoning in law.Dordrecht, The Netherlands:Kluwer Academic, 1997, xiii + 314pp.£75.00/$125.00 J.Srzednicki and Z.Stachniak Lesniewski’s Systems.Protothetic.Nijhoff Inter…Read more
Coral Gables, Florida, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Mathematics |
General Philosophy of Science |
Areas of Interest
Epistemology |
Metaphysics |
Aesthetics |
Philosophy of Physical Science |