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23EPR As A Priori ScienceCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 18 (sup1): 253-272. 1992.Contemporary empiricism is closely allied with naturalism. Not only do empiricists hold that all our knowledge is based upon sensory experience, but they also tend to offer some sort of causal account of how this experience comes about. The causal ingredient in knowledge seems very plausible — after all, my knowing that there is a tea cup on my desk is based on sense impressions which are caused by the cup itself. Photons come from the cup to my eye; a signal is then sent down the optic nerve in…Read more
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71Siobhan Roberts. King of infinite space: Donald coxeter, the man who saved geometryPhilosophia Mathematica 15 (3): 386-388. 2007.Donald Coxeter died in 2003, at a ripe old age of 96. Though I had regularly seen him at mathematics talks in Toronto for over twenty years, I never felt rushed to seek him out. It seemed he would go on forever. His death left me regretting my missed opportunity and Siobhan Robert's excellent book makes me regret it even more. Like any good biography of an intellectual, King of Infinite Space contains personal details and mathematical achievements in some detail. Thus, we learn of the traumatic …Read more
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36Russell Marcus and Mark McEvoy, eds. An Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics: A ReaderPhilosophia Mathematica. forthcoming.
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12Platonism, Naturalism, and Mathematical KnowledgeRoutledge. 2011.This study addresses a central theme in current philosophy: Platonism vs Naturalism and provides accounts of both approaches to mathematics, crucially discussing Quine, Maddy, Kitcher, Lakoff, Colyvan, and many others. Beginning with accounts of both approaches, Brown defends Platonism by arguing that only a Platonistic approach can account for concept acquisition in a number of special cases in the sciences. He also argues for a particular view of applied mathematics, a view that supports Plato…Read more
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51Kitcher’s Mathematical NaturalismCroatian Journal of Philosophy 3 (1): 1-20. 2003.Recent years have seen a number of naturalist accounts of mathematics. Philip Kitcher’s version is one of the most important and influential. This paper includes a critical exposition of Kitcher’s views and a discussion of several issues including: mathematical epistemology, practice, history, the nature of applied mathematics. It argues that naturalism is an inadequate account and compares it with mathematical Platonism, to the advantage of the latter.
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23Who Rules in Science?: An Opinionated Guide to the WarsHarvard University Press. 2001.This eye-opening book reveals how little we've understood about the ongoing pitched battles between the sciences and the humanities--and how much may be at ...
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39Critical Notice of Roy Sorensen Thought ExperimentsCanadian Journal of Philosophy 25 (1): 135-142. 1995.This book adds to the growing literature on thought experiments. There are numerous examples drawn from the sciences and philosophy. The principle claim is that thought experiments are a limiting case of real experiments. It is a moderate empiricist view, in contrast to, e.g., the Platonism of Brown or the strict empiricism of Norton. Highly recommended
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50The philosophy of mathematical practiceInternational Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (1). 2010.This Article does not have an abstract
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University of Toronto, St. George CampusDepartment of Philosophy
Institute for the History and Philosophy of ScienceRetired faculty
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Areas of Specialization
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |