•  46
    An inference is valid if it guarantees the transferability of knowledge from the premisses to the conclusion. If knowledge is here understood as demonstrative knowledge, and demonstration is explained as a chain of valid inferences, we are caught in an explanatory circle. In recent lectures, Per Martin-Löf has sought to avoid the circle by specifying the notion of knowledge appealed to in the explanation of the validity of inference as knowledge of a kind weaker than demonstrative knowledge. The…Read more
  •  7
    Dedekind's Logicism†
    Philosophia Mathematica 25 (3): 341-368. 2015.
    A detailed argument is provided for the thesis that Dedekind was a logicist about arithmetic. The rules of inference employed in Dedekind's construction of arithmetic are, by his lights, all purely logical in character, and the definitions are all explicit; even the definition of the natural numbers as the abstract type of simply infinite systems can be seen to be explicit. The primitive concepts of the construction are logical in their being intrinsically tied to the functioning of the understa…Read more
  •  17
    Spiritus Asper versus Lambda: On the Nature of Functional Abstraction
    Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 64 (2): 205-223. 2023.
    The spiritus asper as used by Frege in a letter to Russell from 1904 bears resemblance to Church’s lambda. It is natural to ask how they relate to each other. An alternative approach to functional abstraction developed by Per Martin-Löf some thirty years ago allows us to describe the relationship precisely. Frege’s spiritus asper provides a way of restructuring a unary function name in Frege’s sense such that the argument place indicator occurs all the way to the right. Martin-Löf’s alternative …Read more
  •  22
    Immanent Reasoning or Equality in Action A Dialogical Study
    with Shahid Rahman, Nicolas Clerbout, Zoe Mc Conaughey, and Juan Redmond
    PREFACEProf. Göran Sundholm of Leiden University inspired the group of Logic at Lille and Valparaíso to start a fundamental review of the dialogical conception of logic by linking it to constructive type logic. One of Sundholm's insights was that inference can be seen as involving an implicit interlocutor. This led to several investigations aimed at exploring the consequences of joining winning strategies to the proof-theoretical conception of meaning. The leading idea is, roughly, that while in…Read more
  •  53
    Modal Homotopy Type Theory. The Prospect of a New Logic for Philosophy (review)
    History and Philosophy of Logic 44 (3): 337-342. 2022.
    1. The theory referred to by the—perhaps intimidating—main title of this book is an extension of Per Martin-Löf's dependent type theory. Much philosophical work pertaining to dependent type theory...
  •  94
    The Axiom of Choice is False Intuitionistically (in Most Contexts)
    with Charles Mccarty and Stewart Shapiro
    Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 29 (1): 71-96. 2023.
    There seems to be a view that intuitionists not only take the Axiom of Choice (AC) to be true, but also believe it a consequence of their fundamental posits. Widespread or not, this view is largely mistaken. This article offers a brief, yet comprehensive, overview of the status of AC in various intuitionistic and constructivist systems. The survey makes it clear that the Axiom of Choice fails to be a theorem in most contexts and is even outright false in some important contexts. Of the systems s…Read more
  •  19
    Identity in Martin‐Löf type theory
    Philosophy Compass 17 (2). 2021.
    Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 2, February 2022.
  •  30
    Identity in Martin‐Löf type theory
    Philosophy Compass 17 (2). 2021.
    The logic of identity contains riches not seen through the coarse lens of predicate logic. This is one of several lessons to draw from the subtle treatment of identity in Martin‐Löf type theory, to which the reader will be introduced in this article. After a brief general introduction we shall mainly be concerned with the distinction between identity propositions and identity judgements. These differ from each other both in logical form and in logical strength. Along the way, connections to phil…Read more
  •  7
    A Comparison of Type Theory with Set Theory
    In Stefania Centrone, Deborah Kant & Deniz Sarikaya (eds.), Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics: Univalent Foundations, Set Theory and General Thoughts, Springer Verlag. pp. 271-292. 2019.
    This paper discusses some of the ways in which Martin-Löf type theory differs from set theory. The discussion concentrates on conceptual, rather than technical, differences. It revolves around four topics: sets versus types; syntax; functions; and identity. The difference between sets and types is spelt out as the difference between unified pluralities and kinds, or sorts. A detailed comparison is then offered of the syntax of the two languages. Emphasis is put on the distinction between proposi…Read more
  •  5
    Carnap et les catégories
    Cahiers Philosophiques 2 27-40. 2020.
    Cet article donne un aperçu des diverses traces de la doctrine des catégories dans les écrits de Carnap. Les notions de catégories jouent un rôle particulièrement important dans le livre Der logische Aufbau der Welt, mais on les retrouve également dans de nombreuses autres œuvres de Carnap. Sa thèse fait allusion à des catégories en plusieurs endroits. Son approche de la logique a été, pendant longtemps, fondée sur la théorie des types, incarnation de la doctrine des catégories dans la logique m…Read more
  •  9
    Carnap’s Turn to the Thing Language
    Philosophia Scientiae 22 179-198. 2018.
    Les contributions de Carnap au Congrès de 1935 marquent un triple changement dans sa philosophie: son tournant sémantique; ce qui sera appelé plus tard « la libéralisation de l’empirisme»; et son adoption du « langage des choses» comme base du langage de la science. C’est ce troisième changement qui est examiné ici. On s’interroge en particulier sur les motifs qui ont poussé Carnap à adopter le langage des choses comme langage protocolaire de la science unifiée et sur les vertus de ce langage, c…Read more
  •  15
    Form of Apprehension and the Content-Apprehension Model in Husserl’s Logical Investigations
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 16 (1): 49-69. 2013.
    An act’s form of apprehension determines whether it is a perception, an imagination, or a signitive act. It must be distinguished from the act’s quality, which determines whether the act is, for instance, assertoric, merely entertaining, wishing, or doubting. The notion of form of apprehension is explained by recourse to the so-called content-apprehension model ; it is characteristic of the Logical Investigations that in it all objectifying acts are analyzed in terms of that model. The distincti…Read more
  •  3
    A Comparison of Type Theory with Set Theory
    In Deniz Sarikaya, Deborah Kant & Stefania Centrone (eds.), Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics, Springer Verlag. pp. 271-292. 2019.
    This paper discusses some of the ways in which Martin-Löf type theory differs from set theory. The discussion concentrates on conceptual, rather than technical, differences. It revolves around four topics: sets versus types; syntax; functions; and identity. The difference between sets and types is spelt out as the difference between unified pluralities and kinds, or sorts. A detailed comparison is then offered of the syntax of the two languages. Emphasis is placed on the distinction between pro…Read more
  •  44
    Eta-rules in Martin-löf type theory
    Bulletin of Symbolic Logic 25 (3): 333-359. 2019.
    The eta rule for a set A says that an arbitrary element of A is judgementally identical to an element of constructor form. Eta rules are not part of what may be called canonical Martin-Löf type theory. They are, however, justified by the meaning explanations, and a higher-order eta rule is part of that type theory. The main aim of this paper is to clarify this somewhat puzzling situation. It will be argued that lower-order eta rules do not, whereas the higher-order eta rule does, accord with the…Read more
  •  46
    Husserl, in his doctrine of categories, distinguishes what he calls regions from what he calls formal categories. The former are most general domains, while the latter are topic-neutral concepts that apply across all domains. Husserl’s understanding of these notions of category is here discussed in detail. It is, moreover, argued that similar notions of category may be recognized in Carnap’s Der logische Aufbau der Welt.
  •  50
    Immanent Reasoning or Equality in Action: A Plaidoyer for the Play Level
    with Nicolas Clerbout, Zoe McConaughey, and Shahid Rahman
    Springer Verlag. 2018.
    This monograph proposes a new way of implementing interaction in logic. It also provides an elementary introduction to Constructive Type Theory. The authors equally emphasize basic ideas and finer technical details. In addition, many worked out exercises and examples will help readers to better understand the concepts under discussion. One of the chief ideas animating this study is that the dialogical understanding of definitional equality and its execution provide both a simple and a direct way…Read more
  •  39
    The Harmony of Identity
    Journal of Philosophical Logic 48 (5): 867-884. 2019.
    The standard natural deduction rules for the identity predicate have seemed to some not to be harmonious. Stephen Read has suggested an alternative introduction rule that restores harmony but presupposes second-order logic. Here it will be shown that the standard rules are in fact harmonious. To this end, natural deduction will be enriched with a theory of definitional identity. This leads to a novel conception of canonical derivation, on the basis of which the identity elimination rule can be j…Read more
  •  33
    Carnap’s Turn to the Thing Language
    Philosophia Scientiae 22 179-198. 2018.
    Les contributions de Carnap au Congrès de 1935 marquent un triple changement dans sa philosophie: son tournant sémantique; ce qui sera appelé plus tard « la libéralisation de l’empirisme»; et son adoption du « langage des choses» comme base du langage de la science. C’est ce troisième changement qui est examiné ici. On s’interroge en particulier sur les motifs qui ont poussé Carnap à adopter le langage des choses comme langage protocolaire de la science unifiée et sur les vertus de ce langage, c…Read more
  •  78
    A Road Map of Dedekind’s Theorem 66
    Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 8 (2): 241-277. 2018.
    Richard Dedekind’s theorem 66 states that there exists an infinite set. Its proof invokes such apparently nonmathematical notions as the thought-world and the self. This article discusses the content and context of Dedekind’s proof. It is suggested that Dedekind took the notion of the thought-world from Hermann Lotze. The influence of Kant and Bernard Bolzano on the proof is also discussed, and the reception of the proof in the mathematical and philosophical literature is covered in detail.
  •  50
    Carnap on unified science
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 59 53-67. 2016.
    Unified science is a recurring theme in Carnap's work from the time of the Aufbau until the end of the 1930's. The theme is not constant, but knows several variations. I shall extract three quite precise formulations of the thesis of unified science from Carnap's work during this period: from the Aufbau, from Carnap's so-called syntactic period, and from "Testability and Meaning" and related papers. My main objective is to explain these formulations and to discuss their relation, both to each ot…Read more
  •  103
    Husserl's Logical Grammar
    History and Philosophy of Logic 39 (3): 232-269. 2018.
    Lecture notes from Husserl's logic lectures published during the last 20 years offer a much better insight into his doctrine of the forms of meaning than does the fourth Logical Investigation or any other work published during Husserl's lifetime. This paper provides a detailed reconstruction, based on all the sources now available, of Husserl's system of logical grammar. After having explained the notion of meaning that Husserl assumes in his later logic lectures as well as the notion of form of…Read more
  •  88
    The concept horse is a concept
    Review of Symbolic Logic 11 (3): 547-572. 2018.
    I offer an analysis of the sentence "the concept horse is a concept". It will be argued that the grammatical subject of this sentence, "the concept horse", indeed refers to a concept, and not to an object, as Frege once held. The argument is based on a criterion of proper-namehood according to which an expression is a proper name if it is so rendered in Frege's ideography. The predicate "is a concept", on the other hand, should not be thought of as referring to a function. It will be argued that…Read more
  •  56
    On the basis of Martin-Löf’s meaning explanations for his type theory a detailed justification is offered of the rule of identity elimination. Brief discussions are thereafter offered of how the univalence axiom fares with respect to these meaning explanations and of some recent work on identity in type theory by Ladyman and Presnell.
  •  111
    Form of apprehension and the content-apprehension model in Husserl's Logical Investigations
    History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 16 49-69. 2013.
    An act’s form of apprehension (Auffassungsform) determines whether it is a perception, an imagination, or a signitive act. It must be distinguished from the act’s quality, which determines whether the act is, for instance, assertoric, merely entertaining, wishing, or doubting. The notion of form of apprehension is explained by recourse to the so-called content–apprehension model (Inhalt-Auffassung Schema); it is characteristic of the Logical Investigations that in it all objectifying acts are an…Read more
  •  99
    A Proof‐Theoretic Account of the Miners Paradox
    Theoria 82 (4): 351-369. 2016.
    By maintaining that a conditional sentence can be taken to express the validity of a rule of inference, we offer a solution to the Miners Paradox that leaves both modus ponens and disjunction elimination intact. The solution draws on Sundholm's recently proposed account of Fitch's Paradox.
  •  50
    Dedekind's Logicism
    Philosophia Mathematica. 2015.
    A detailed argument is provided for the thesis that Dedekind was a logicist about arithmetic. The rules of inference employed in Dedekind's construction of arithmetic are, by his lights, all purely logical in character, and the definitions are all explicit; even the definition of the natural numbers as the abstract type of simply infinite systems can be seen to be explicit. The primitive concepts of the construction are logical in their being intrinsically tied to the functioning of the understa…Read more
  •  81
    Dedekind and Hilbert on the foundations of the deductive sciences
    Review of Symbolic Logic 4 (4): 645-681. 2011.
    We offer an interpretation of the words and works of Richard Dedekind and the David Hilbert of around 1900 on which they are held to entertain diverging views on the structure of a deductive science. Firstly, it is argued that Dedekind sees the beginnings of a science in concepts, whereas Hilbert sees such beginnings in axioms. Secondly, it is argued that for Dedekind, the primitive terms of a science are substantive terms whose sense is to be conveyed by elucidation, whereas Hilbert dismisses e…Read more
  •  68
    Identity and Sortals
    Erkenntnis 82 (1): 1-16. 2017.
    According to the sortal conception of the universe of individuals every individual falls under a highest sortal, or category. It is argued here that on this conception the identity relation is defined between individuals a and b if and only if a and b fall under a common category. Identity must therefore be regarded as a relation of the form \, with three arguments x, y, and Z, where Z ranges over categories, and where the range of x and y depends on the value of Z. An identity relation of this …Read more