-
639Global and localMathematical Intelligencer 36 (4). 2014.The global/local contrast is ubiquitous in mathematics. This paper explains it with straightforward examples. It is possible to build a circular staircase that is rising at any point (locally) but impossible to build one that rises at all points and comes back to where it started (a global restriction). Differential equations describe the local structure of a process; their solution describes the global structure that results. The interplay between global and local structure is one of the great …Read more
-
394Non-deductive Logic in Mathematics: The Probability of ConjecturesIn Andrew Aberdein & Ian J. Dove (eds.), The Argument of Mathematics, Springer. pp. 11--29. 2013.Mathematicians often speak of conjectures, yet unproved, as probable or well-confirmed by evidence. The Riemann Hypothesis, for example, is widely believed to be almost certainly true. There seems no initial reason to distinguish such probability from the same notion in empirical science. Yet it is hard to see how there could be probabilistic relations between the necessary truths of pure mathematics. The existence of such logical relations, short of certainty, is defended using the theory of l…Read more
-
118Aristotelian realismIn A. Irvine (ed.), The Philosophy of Mathematics (Handbook of the Philosophy of Science series), North-holland Elsevier. 2009.Aristotelian, or non-Platonist, realism holds that mathematics is a science of the real world, just as much as biology or sociology are. Where biology studies living things and sociology studies human social relations, mathematics studies the quantitative or structural aspects of things, such as ratios, or patterns, or complexity, or numerosity, or symmetry. Let us start with an example, as Aristotelians always prefer, an example that introduces the essential themes of the Aristotelian view of m…Read more
-
780Randomness and the justification of inductionSynthese 138 (1). 2004.In 1947 Donald Cary Williams claimed in The Ground of Induction to have solved the Humean problem of induction, by means of an adaptation of reasoning first advanced by Bernoulli in 1713. Later on David Stove defended and improved upon Williams’ argument in The Rational- ity of Induction (1986). We call this proposed solution of induction the ‘Williams-Stove sampling thesis’. There has been no lack of objections raised to the sampling thesis, and it has not been widely accepted. In our opinion, t…Read more
-
581Arguments Whose Strength Depends on Continuous VariationInformal Logic 33 (1): 33-56. 2013.Both the traditional Aristotelian and modern symbolic approaches to logic have seen logic in terms of discrete symbol processing. Yet there are several kinds of argument whose validity depends on some topological notion of continuous variation, which is not well captured by discrete symbols. Examples include extrapolation and slippery slope arguments, sorites, fuzzy logic, and those involving closeness of possible worlds. It is argued that the natural first attempts to analyze these notions and …Read more
-
413The formal sciences discover the philosophers' stoneStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (4): 513-533. 1994.The formal sciences - mathematical as opposed to natural sciences, such as operations research, statistics, theoretical computer science, systems engineering - appear to have achieved mathematically provable knowledge directly about the real world. It is argued that this appearance is correct.
-
490Mathematical necessity and realityAustralasian Journal of Philosophy 67 (3). 1989.Einstein, like most philosophers, thought that there cannot be mathematical truths which are both necessary and about reality. The article argues against this, starting with prima facie examples such as "It is impossible to tile my bathroom floor with regular pentagonal tiles." Replies are given to objections based on the supposedly purely logical or hypothetical nature of mathematics
-
43Accountancy and the quantification of rights: Giving moral values legal teethCentre for an Ethical Society Papers. 2007.If a company’s share price rises when it sacks workers, or when it makes money from polluting the environment, it would seem that the accounting is not being done correctly. Real costs are not being paid. People’s ethical claims, which in a smaller-scale case would be legally enforceable, are not being measured in such circumstances. This results from a mismatch between the applied ethics tradition and the practice of the accounting profession. Applied ethics has mostly avoided quantification of…Read more
-
166Global justice: an anti-collectivist and pro-causal ethicSolidarity 2 (1). 2012.Both philosophical and practical analyses of global justice issues have been vitiated by two errors: a too-high emphasis on the supposed duties of collectives to act, and a too-low emphasis on the analysis of causes and risks. Concentrating instead on the duties of individual actors and analysing what they can really achieve reconfigures the field. It diverts attention from individual problems such as poverty or refugees or questions on what states should do. Instead it shows that there are diff…Read more
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Science, Logic, and Mathematics |
Philosophy of Mathematics |
Interpretation of Probability |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Mathematics |
General Philosophy of Science |
PhilPapers Editorships
Mathematical Aristotelianism |