Burgess's ‘scientific’ arguments for the existence of mathematical objects

Philosophia Mathematica 14 (3):318-337 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper addresses John Burgess's answer to the ‘Benacerraf Problem’: How could we come justifiably to believe anything implying that there are numbers, given that it does not make sense to ascribe location or causal powers to numbers? Burgess responds that we should look at how mathematicians come to accept: There are prime numbers greater than 1010 That, according to Burgess, is how one can come justifiably to believe something implying that there are numbers. This paper investigates what lies behind Burgess's answer and ends up as a rebuttal to Burgess's reasoning.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 86,336

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Anti-nominalism reconsidered.David Liggins - 2007 - Philosophical Quarterly 57 (226):104–111.
Charles Parsons. Mathematical thought and its objects.John P. Burgess - 2008 - Philosophia Mathematica 16 (3):402-409.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
69 (#202,637)

6 months
1 (#866,649)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Scientific Image.William Demopoulos & Bas C. van Fraassen - 1982 - Philosophical Review 91 (4):603.
The Scientific Image by Bas C. van Fraassen. [REVIEW]Michael Friedman - 1982 - Journal of Philosophy 79 (5):274-283.
Mathematical logic.Joseph R. Shoenfield - 1967 - Reading, Mass.,: Addison-Wesley.
The iterative conception of set.George Boolos - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (8):215-231.

View all 15 references / Add more references