A Subject with No Object: Strategies for Nominalistic Interpretation of Mathematics
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press (1997)
Abstract
Numbers and other mathematical objects are exceptional in having no locations in space or time or relations of cause and effect. This makes it difficult to account for the possibility of the knowledge of such objects, leading many philosophers to embrace nominalism, the doctrine that there are no such objects, and to embark on ambitious projects for interpreting mathematics so as to preserve the subject while eliminating its objects. This book cuts through a host of technicalities that have obscured previous discussions of these projects, and presents clear, concise accounts of a dozen strategies for nominalistic interpretation of mathematics, thus equipping the reader to evaluate each and to compare different ones. The authors also offer critical discussion, rare in the literature, of the aims and claims of nominalistic interpretation, suggesting that it is significant in a very different way from that usually assumed.Author Profiles
Reprint years
1999
Call number
QA8.4.B86 1997
ISBN(s)
9780198236153 0198250126 0198236158 9780198250128
DOI
10.2307/2653551
My notes
Similar books and articles
New directions for nominalist philosophers of mathematics.Charles Chihara - 2010 - Synthese 176 (2):153 - 175.
Review of J. P. Burgess and G. A. Rosen, A Subject With No Object. Strategies for Nominalistic Interpretation of Mathematics. [REVIEW]Michael D. Resnik - 1999 - Noûs 33 (3):505–516.
The Burgess-Rosen critique of nominalistic reconstructions.Charles Chihara - 2007 - Philosophia Mathematica 15 (1):54--78.
Towards a Philosophy of Applied Mathematics.Christopher Pincock - 2009 - In Otávio Bueno & Øystein Linnebo (eds.), New Waves in Philosophy of Mathematics. Palgrave-Macmillan.
Analytics
Added to PP
2009-01-28
Downloads
355 (#32,720)
6 months
16 (#63,906)
2009-01-28
Downloads
355 (#32,720)
6 months
16 (#63,906)
Historical graph of downloads
Author Profiles
Citations of this work
On what grounds what.Jonathan Schaffer - 2009 - In David Manley, David J. Chalmers & Ryan Wasserman (eds.), Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford University Press. pp. 347-383.
Individuals: an essay in revisionary metaphysics.Shamik Dasgupta - 2009 - Philosophical Studies 145 (1):35-67.