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23Intuition and Reflection in ArithmeticAristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 73 63-98. 1999.[Michael Potter] If arithmetic is not analytic in Kant's sense, what is its subject matter? Answers to this question can be classified into four sorts according as they posit logic, experience, thought or the world as the source, but in each case we need to appeal to some further process if we are to generate a structure rich enough to represent arithmetic as standardly practised. I speculate that this further process is our reflection on the subject matter already obtained. This suggestion seem…Read more
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16Taming the Infinite1 (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (4): 609-619. 1996.
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16Propositions in Wittgenstein and RamseyIn Gabriele Mras, Paul Weingartner & Bernhard Ritter (eds.), Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics: Proceedings of the 41st International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium, De Gruyter. pp. 375-384. 2019.
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16Reason's Nearest Kin: Philosophies of Arithmetic from Kant to Carnap (review)Erkenntnis 56 (2): 264-268. 2000.
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15Recarving Content: Hale's Final ProposalProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 102 (3): 301-304. 2002.
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14Wittgenstein and the External World ProgrammeIn Friedrich Stadler (ed.), Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle: 100 Years After the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Springer Verlag. pp. 223-233. 2023.I trace the history of Wittgenstein’s engagement with Russell’s external world programme from 1913 to 1929.
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14Classical Arithmetic is Part of Intuitionistic ArithmeticGrazer Philosophische Studien 55 (1): 127-141. 1998.One of Michael Dummett's most striking contributions to the philosophy of mathematics is an argument to show that the correct logic to apply in mathematical reasoning is not classical but intuitionistic. In this article I wish to cast doubt on Dummett's conclusion by outlining an alternative, motivated by consideration of a well-known result of Kurt Gödel, to the standard view of the relationship between classical and intuitionistic arithmetic. I shall suggest that it is hard to find a perspecti…Read more
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12Early Analytic Philosophy: From Frege to RamseyRoutledge. 2018.In this book, Michael Potter offers a fresh and compelling portrait of the birth and first several decades of analytic philosophy, one of the most important periods in philosophy’s long history. He focuses on the period between the publication of Gottlob Frege’s _Begriffsschrift _in 1879 and Frank Ramsey’s death in 1930. Potter--one of the most influential writers on late 19 th and early 20 th century philosophy--presents a deep but accessible account of the break with Absolute Idealism and Neo-…Read more
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1Infinite coincidences and inaccessible truthsIn Philosophy of Mathematics, Proceedings of the 15th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Hölder-pichler-tempsky. pp. 307-313. 1993.Argues, contra Dummett, that the platonist need not be any more committed than the intuitionist to the notion that there are arithmetical truths in principle inaccessible to any finite intelligence.
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1What is the problem of mathematical knowledge?In Michael Potter, Mary Leng & Alexander Paseau (eds.), Mathematical Knowledge, . 2007.Suggests that the recent emphasis on Benacerraf's access problem locates the peculiarity of mathematical knowledge in the wrong place. Instead we should focus on the sense in which mathematical concepts are or might be "armchair concepts" – concepts about which non-trivial knowledge is obtainable a priori.
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Abstractionist class theory : is there any such thing?In T. J. Smiley, Jonathan Lear & Alex Oliver (eds.), The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley, Routledge. 2010.A discussion of the philosophical prospects for basing a neo-Fregean theory of classes on a principle that attempts to articulate the limitation-of-size conception.
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Review: Constructibility and mathematical existence by Charles S. Chihara (review)Philosophical Quarterly 41 345-348. 1991.A review.
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Propositions in Wittgenstein and RamseyIn Gabriele Mras, Paul Weingartner & Bernhard Ritter (eds.), Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics: Proceedings of the 41st International Ludwig Wittgenstein Symposium, De Gruyter. pp. 375-383. 2019.
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IntroductionIn Michael Potter, Joan Weiner, Warren Goldfarb, Peter Sullivan, Alex Oliver & Thomas Ricketts (eds.), The Cambridge companion to Frege, Cambridge University Press. 2010.
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Solipsism and the selfIn José L. Zalabardo (ed.), Wittgenstein's Tractatus logico-philosophicus: a critical guide, Cambridge University Press. 2024.
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Wittgenstein on mathematicsIn Marie McGinn & Oskari Kuusela (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Wittgenstein, Oxford University Press. 2011.
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Privacy as a supra-regime value : the ethical argument for a new evolution of regime values to better protect financial privacy in local governmentsIn Nicole M. Elias & Amanda M. Olejarski (eds.), Ethics for contemporary bureaucrats: navigating constitutional crossroads, Routledge. 2020.
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Logic and Philosophy of Logic |
Philosophy of Mathematics |
20th Century Philosophy |