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Thomas Forster

Cambridge University
  •  Home
  •  Publications
    41
    • Most Recent
    • Most Downloaded
    • Topics
  •  News and Updates
    2

 More details
  • Cambridge University
    Retired faculty
  • Cambridge University
    Retired faculty
Homepage
Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics
Areas of Interest
Science, Logic, and Mathematics
  • All publications (41)
  •  1
    A Consistent Higher‐Order Theory Without a (Higher‐Order) Model
    Mathematical Logic Quarterly 35 (5): 385-386. 2006.
  •  2
    Permutation Models in the Sense of Rieger‐Bernays
    Mathematical Logic Quarterly 33 (3): 201-210. 2006.
  •  2
    Permutations and stratified formulae a preservation theorem
    Mathematical Logic Quarterly 36 (5): 385-388. 2006.
  •  4
    Quine’s New Foundations
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
  •  36
    Synonymy Questions Concerning the Quine Systems
    with M. Randall Holmes
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 90 (4): 1779-1795. 2025.
    There are a variety of (“alternative”) axiomatic set theories available to mathematicians. It is worth asking how “alternative” they really are. Might they be no more than rephrasings of the theory (ZFC) that we already have? Here we give an account of the status of the Quine systems in this regard. Some are merely ZF in wolves’ clothing; some are genuine wolves.
    Logic and Philosophy of Logic
  •  50
    Internal Automorphisms and Antimorphisms of Models of Nf
    with Nathan Bowler
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 90 (4): 1796-1800. 2025.
    It is shown that every model of NF admits a permutation model containing an internal automorphism.
    Logic and Philosophy of Logic
  •  37
    Permutation Models in the Sense of Rieger‐Bernays
    Mathematical Logic Quarterly 33 (3): 201-210. 1987.
  •  53
    Permutation Models in the Sense of Rieger-Bernays
    Zeitschrift fur mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik 33 (3): 201-210. 1987.
  •  48
    Reasoning About Theoretical Entities
    World Scientific. 2003.
    As such this book fills a void in the philosophical literature and presents a challenge to every would-be (anti-)reductionist.
    Philosophy of Mathematics, Misc
  •  54
    Quine's new foundations
    Journal of Symbolic Logic. 1985.
    W. V. O. Quine
  •  174
    Term models for weak set theories with a universal set
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 52 (2): 374-387. 1987.
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicModel Theory
  •  133
    Ramsey’s theorem and König’s Lemma
    with J. K. Truss
    Archive for Mathematical Logic 46 (1): 37-42. 2007.
    We consider the relation between versions of Ramsey’s Theorem and König’s Infinity Lemma, in the absence of the axiom of choice
    Areas of Mathematics
  •  195
    Further consistency and independence results in NF obtained by the permutation method
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 48 (2): 236-238. 1983.
    Independence Results in Set Theory
  • Set Theory with a Universal Set. Exploring an Untyped Universe
    Studia Logica 53 (4): 586-595. 1994.
    Logic and Philosophy of Logic, Miscellaneous
  •  158
    Non-well-foundedness of well-orderable power sets
    with J. K. Truss
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 68 (3): 879-884. 2003.
    Tarski [5] showed that for any set X, its set w(X) of well-orderable subsets has cardinality strictly greater than that of X, even in the absence of the axiom of choice. We construct a Fraenkel-Mostowski model in which there is an infinite strictly descending sequence under the relation |w (X)| = |Y|. This contrasts with the corresponding situation for power sets, where use of Hartogs' ℵ-function easily establishes that there can be no infinite descending sequence under the relation |P(X)| = |Y|
    Logic and Philosophy of Logic, MiscellaneousAxioms of Set Theory
  •  143
    The status of the axiom of choice in set theory with a universal set
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 50 (3): 701-707. 1985.
    The Axiom of Choice
  •  131
    Yablo's paradox and the omitting types theorem for propositional languages
    Logique Et Analyse 54 (215): 323-326. 2011.
    Metaphysics and EpistemologyTruth
  •  95
    NF at (nearly) 75
    Logique Et Analyse 53 (212): 483-491. 2010.
    The consistency question for Quine's NF is still open. This is despite consistency having been established for systems which apparently resemble it very closely. The peculiar difficulties attending the consistency problem for NF are discussed. © 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
    Metaphysics and Epistemology
  •  22
    Deterministic and Nondeterministic Strategies for Hintikka games in First-order and Branching-quantifier logic
    Logique Et Analyse 195 265--9. 2006.
    Applications of game-theoretic semantics à la Hintikka can be extended from Lower Predicate Calculus to languages with branching quantifiers. When one does this, issues which in the LPC could be swept under the carpet suddenly cause unwelcome subtleties. It turns out that which formulae of the branching quantifier logic one accounts true comes to depend on whether one requires that the winning strategies for Team Eloïse in the Hintikka game be deterministic (or allows them to be nondeterministic…Read more
    Applications of game-theoretic semantics à la Hintikka can be extended from Lower Predicate Calculus to languages with branching quantifiers. When one does this, issues which in the LPC could be swept under the carpet suddenly cause unwelcome subtleties. It turns out that which formulae of the branching quantifier logic one accounts true comes to depend on whether one requires that the winning strategies for Team Eloïse in the Hintikka game be deterministic (or allows them to be nondeterministic). The set of valid formulae is affected similarly. © 2011 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
    Metaphysics and EpistemologyGeneralized Quantifiers
  •  76
    Permutations and Wellfoundedness: The True Meaning of the Bizarre Arithmetic of Quine's NF
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 71 (1). 2006.
    It is shown that, according to NF, many of the assertions of ordinal arithmetic involving the T-function which is peculiar to NF turn out to be equivalent to the truth-in-certain-permutation-models of assertions which have perfectly sensible ZF-style meanings, such as: the existence of wellfounded sets of great size or rank, or the nonexistence of small counterexamples to the wellfoundedness of ∈. Everything here holds also for NFU if the permutations are taken to fix all urelemente
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicW. V. O. QuineModel Theory
  •  6
    Rhetorical devices in analytic philosophy
    Logique Et Analyse 53 (210): 93-100. 2010.
    Metaphysics and EpistemologyPhilosophy of Cognitive Science
  • Foreword
    Logique Et Analyse 46. 2003.
    Metaphysics and Epistemology
  • A Note On Paradoxes In Ethics
    The Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication 1. 2005.
  •  16
    The axiom of choice and inference to the best explanation
    Logique Et Analyse 49 191-197. 2006.
    An argument often given for adopting the Axiom of Choice as an axiom is that it has a lot of obviously true consequences. This looks like a legitimate application of the practice of Inference to the Best Explanation. However, the standard examples of obvious-truths-following-from-AC all turn out, on closer inspection, to involve a fallacy of equivocation. © 2012 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
    Inference to the Best Explanation, MiscThe Axiom of Choice
  •  46
    Permutations and stratified formulae a preservation theorem
    Mathematical Logic Quarterly 36 (5): 385-388. 1990.
    Areas of Mathematics
  •  124
    A Note on Freedom from Detachment in the Logic of Paradox
    with Jc Beall and Jeremy Seligman
    Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 54 (1): 15-20. 2013.
    We shed light on an old problem by showing that the logic LP cannot define a binary connective $\odot$ obeying detachment in the sense that every valuation satisfying $\varphi$ and $(\varphi\odot\psi)$ also satisfies $\psi$, except trivially. We derive this as a corollary of a more general result concerning variable sharing.
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicNonclassical LogicsParaconsistent Logic
  •  383
    The iterative conception of set
    Review of Symbolic Logic 1 (1): 97-110. 2008.
    The phrase ‘The iterative conception of sets’ conjures up a picture of a particular settheoretic universe – the cumulative hierarchy – and the constant conjunction of phrasewith-picture is so reliable that people tend to think that the cumulative hierarchy is all there is to the iterative conception of sets: if you conceive sets iteratively, then the result is the cumulative hierarchy. In this paper, I shall be arguing that this is a mistake: the iterative conception of set is a good one, for al…Read more
    The phrase ‘The iterative conception of sets’ conjures up a picture of a particular settheoretic universe – the cumulative hierarchy – and the constant conjunction of phrasewith-picture is so reliable that people tend to think that the cumulative hierarchy is all there is to the iterative conception of sets: if you conceive sets iteratively, then the result is the cumulative hierarchy. In this paper, I shall be arguing that this is a mistake: the iterative conception of set is a good one, for all the usual reasons. However, the cumulative hierarchy is merely one way among many of working out this conception, and arguments in favour of an iterative conception have been mistaken for arguments in favour of this one special instance of it. (This may be the point to get out of the way the observation that although philosophers of mathematics write of the iterative conception of set, what they really mean – in the terminology of modern computer science at least – is the recursive conception of sets. Nevertheless, having got that quibble off my chest, I shall continue to write of the iterative conception like everyone else.).
    The Iterative Conception of Set
  •  147
    Mathematical Objects arising from Equivalence Relations and their Implementation in Quine's NF
    Philosophia Mathematica 24 (1): 50-59. 2016.
    Many mathematical objects arise from equivalence classes and invite implementation as those classes. Set-existence principles that would enable this are incompatible with ZFC's unrestricted _aussonderung_ but there are set theories which admit more instances than does ZF. NF provides equivalence classes for stratified relations only. Church's construction provides equivalence classes for "low" sets, and thus, for example, a set of all ordinals. However, that set has an ordinal in turn which is n…Read more
    Many mathematical objects arise from equivalence classes and invite implementation as those classes. Set-existence principles that would enable this are incompatible with ZFC's unrestricted _aussonderung_ but there are set theories which admit more instances than does ZF. NF provides equivalence classes for stratified relations only. Church's construction provides equivalence classes for "low" sets, and thus, for example, a set of all ordinals. However, that set has an ordinal in turn which is not a member of the set constructed; so no set of _all_ ordinals is obtained thereby. This "recurrence problem" is discussed.
    Areas of MathematicsMathematical Fictionalism
  •  147
    An Order-Theoretic Account of Some Set-Theoretic Paradoxes
    with Thierry Libert
    Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 52 (1): 1-19. 2011.
    We present an order-theoretic analysis of set-theoretic paradoxes. This analysis will show that a large variety of purely set-theoretic paradoxes (including the various Russell paradoxes as well as all the familiar implementations of the paradoxes of Mirimanoff and Burali-Forti) are all instances of a single limitative phenomenon
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicLiar Paradox
  •  329
    ZF + "every set is the same size as a wellfounded set"
    Journal of Symbolic Logic 68 (1): 1-4. 2003.
    Let ZFB be ZF + "every set is the same size as a wellfounded set". Then the following are true. Every sentence true in every (Rieger-Bernays) permutation model of a model of ZF is a theorem of ZFB. (i.e.. ZFB is the theory of Rieger-Bernays permutation models of models of ZF) ZF and ZFAFA are both extensions of ZFB conservative for stratified formulæ. The class of models of ZFB is closed under creation of Rieger-Bernays permutation models
    Logic and Philosophy of LogicLogic and Philosophy of Logic, Miscellaneous
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