25 found
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  1.  26
    Mathematical consensus: a research program.Roy Wagner - 2022 - Axiomathes 32 (3):1185-1204.
    One of the distinguishing features of mathematics is the exceptional level of consensus among mathematicians. However, an analysis of what mathematicians agree on, how they achieve this agreement, and the relevant historical conditions is lacking. This paper is a programmatic intervention providing a preliminary analysis and outlining a research program in this direction.First, I review the process of ‘negotiation’ that yields agreement about the validity of proofs. This process most often does generate consensus, however, it may give rise to another (...)
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  2.  31
    Paul Cohen’s philosophy of mathematics and its reflection in his mathematical practice.Roy Wagner - 2023 - Synthese 202 (2):1-22.
    This paper studies Paul Cohen’s philosophy of mathematics and mathematical practice as expressed in his writing on set-theoretic consistency proofs using his method of forcing. Since Cohen did not consider himself a philosopher and was somewhat reluctant about philosophy, the analysis uses semiotic and literary textual methodologies rather than mainstream philosophical ones. Specifically, I follow some ideas of Lévi-Strauss’s structural semiotics and some literary narratological methodologies. I show how Cohen’s reflections and rhetoric attempt to bridge what he experiences as an (...)
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  3.  18
    Does Mathematics Need Foundations?Roy Wagner - 2019 - In Stefania Centrone, Deborah Kant & Deniz Sarikaya (eds.), Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics: Univalent Foundations, Set Theory and General Thoughts. Springer Verlag. pp. 381-396.
    This note opens with brief evaluations of classical foundationalist endeavors – those of Frege, Russell, Brouwer and Hilbert. From there we proceed to some pluralist approaches to foundations, focusing on Putnam and Wittgenstein, making a note of what enables their pluralism. Then, I bring up approaches that find foundations potentially harmful, as expressed by Rav and Lakatos. I conclude with a brief discussion of a late medieval Indian case study in order to show what an “unfounded” mathematics could look like. (...)
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  4.  38
    Wronski’s Infinities.Roy Wagner - 2014 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 4 (1):26-61.
    This article interprets Józef Maria Hoëné Wronski’s (1776–1853) use of actual infinities in his mathematical work. The interpretation places this usage, which undermined Wronski’s acceptance as a mathematician, in his contemporary mathematical and philosophical context and in the context of his own sociopolitical-philosophical project.
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  5.  21
    The natures of numbers in and around Bombelli’s L’algebra.Roy Wagner - 2010 - Archive for History of Exact Sciences 64 (5):485-523.
    The purpose of this article is to analyse the mathematical practices leading to Rafael Bombelli’s L’algebra (1572). The context for the analysis is the Italian algebra practiced by abbacus masters and Renaissance mathematicians of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. We will focus here on the semiotic aspects of algebraic practices and on the organisation of knowledge. Our purpose is to show how symbols that stand for underdetermined meanings combine with shifting principles of organisation to change the character of algebra.
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  6.  46
    Mathematical Variables as Indigenous Concepts.Roy Wagner - 2009 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (1):1-18.
    This paper explores the semiotic status of algebraic variables. To do that we build on a structuralist and post-structuralist train of thought going from Mauss and L vi-Strauss to Baudrillard and Derrida. We import these authors' semiotic thinking from the register of indigenous concepts (such as mana), and apply it to the register of algebra via a concrete case study of generating functions. The purpose of this experiment is to provide a philosophical language that can explore the openness of mathematical (...)
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  7.  14
    An Anthropology of the Subject: Holographic Worldview in New Guinea and Its Meaning and Significance for the World of Anthropology.Roy Wagner - 2001 - Univ of California Press.
    "Roy Wagner is a one-of-a-kind anthropologist whose books provide intense intellectual stimulation. His way of connecting the world of New Guinea to the world of anthropology is unique and, well, mind-blowing.... He writes books that you actually want to and will read more than once."--Steven Feld, author of Sound and Sentiment "Wagner asks, daringly, what it would be like to imagine one of the most significant of human activities, the activity of description or representation, as a self-scaling phenomenon.... One begins (...)
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  8.  11
    Conatus mathematico-philosophicus.Roy Wagner - 2020 - Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie 45 (1).
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  9.  48
    A Historically and Philosophically Informed Approach to Mathematical Metaphors.Roy Wagner - 2013 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 27 (2):109-135.
    This article discusses the concept of mathematical metaphor as a tool for analyzing the formation of mathematical knowledge. It reflects on the work of Lakoff and Núñez as a reference point against which to rearticulate a richer notion of mathematical metaphor that can account for actual mathematical evolution. To reach its goal this article analyzes historical case studies, draws on cognitive research, and applies lessons from the history of metaphors in philosophy as analyzed by Derrida and de Man.
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  10.  31
    Emplaced Myth: Space, Narrative, and Knowledge in Aboriginal Australia and Papua New Guinea.Lissant Boltan, Andrew Lattas, Anthony Redmond, Alan Rumsey, Deborah Bird Rose, Eric Kline Silverman, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Roy Wagner & Jurg Wassmann - 2012 - Philosophy East and West 62 (4).
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  11.  44
    Ibn al-Haytham’s Revision of the Euclidean Foundations of Mathematics.Ahmad Ighbariah & Roy Wagner - 2018 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 8 (1):62-86.
    This article studies Ibn al-Haytham’s treatment of the common notions from Euclid’s Elements (usually referred to today as the axioms). We argue that Ibn al-Haytham initiated a new approach with regard to these foundational statements, rejecting their qualification as innate, self-evident, or primary. We suggest that Ibn al-Haytham’s engagement with experimental science, especially optics, led him to revise the framing of Euclidean common notions in a way that would fit his experimental approach.
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  12. Infinity Metaphors, Idealism, and the Applicability of Mathematics.Roy Wagner - 2012 - Iyyun 61:129-148.
  13.  38
    Funeral Rites, Queer Politics.Roy Wagner - 2006 - Theory and Event 9 (4):4.
  14.  28
    Jost Bürgi’s methods of calculating sines, and possible transmission from India.Samuel Hunziker & Roy Wagner - 2019 - Archive for History of Exact Sciences 73 (3):243-260.
    A few years ago, a manuscript by Jost Bürgi (1552–1632) was brought to scholarly attention, which included an ingenious sine calculation method. The purpose of this paper is to discuss two aspects of this manuscript. First, we wish to improve the current understanding of Bürgi’s method of sine calculation, especially with respect to the calculation of sines at a resolution of 1 min. Second, we wish to suggest a possible transfer of knowledge between India’s Kerala School of mathematical astronomy and (...)
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  15.  14
    On the Other: Dialogue And/or Dialectics : Mark Taylor's "Paralectics".Mark C. Taylor, Robert P. Scharlemann, Roy Wagner, Michael Brint & Richard Rorty - 1991
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  16.  14
    Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C. Scott.Roy Wagner - 2020 - Common Knowledge 26 (1):156a-156a.
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  17.  13
    As Wide As The World Is Wise: Reinventing Philosophical Anthropology by Michael Jackson.Roy Wagner - 2020 - Common Knowledge 26 (1):189-189.
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  18.  20
    Finite high-order games and an inductive approach towards Gowers's dichotomy.Roy Wagner - 2001 - Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 111 (1-2):39-60.
    We present the notion of finite high-order Gowers games, and prove a statement parallel to Gowers's Combinatorial Lemma for these games. We derive ‘quantitative’ versions of the original Gowers Combinatorial Lemma and of Gowers's Dichotomy, which place them in the context of the recently introduced infinite dimensional asymptotic theory for Banach spaces.
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  19.  44
    For Some Histories of Greek Mathematics.Roy Wagner - 2009 - Science in Context 22 (4):535-565.
    ArgumentThis paper argues for the viability of a different philosophical point of view concerning classical Greek geometry. It reviews Reviel Netz's interpretation of classical Greek geometry and offers a Deleuzian, post-structural alternative. Deleuze's notion of haptic vision is imported from its art history context to propose an analysis of Greek geometric practices that serves as counterpoint to their linear modular cognitive narration by Netz. Our interpretation highlights the relation between embodied practices, noisy material constraints, and operational codes. Furthermore, it sheds (...)
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  20.  28
    Gregory Bateson: The Legacy of a Scientist. David Lipset.Roy Wagner - 1981 - Isis 72 (3):523-524.
  21.  52
    Post-structural Readings of a logico-mathematical text.Roy Wagner - 2008 - Perspectives on Science 16 (2):pp. 196-230.
    This paper will apply post-structural semiotic theories to study the texts of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem. I will study the texts’ own articulations of concepts of ‘meaning’, analyze the mechanisms they use to sustain their senses of validity, and point out how the texts depend (without losing their mathematical rigor) on sustaining some shifts of meaning. I will demonstrate that the texts manifest semiotic effects, which we usually associate with poetry and everyday speech. I will conclude with an analysis of (...)
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  22.  43
    S(zp, zp): post-structural readings of Gödel's proof.Roy Wagner - 2009 - Milano: Polimetrica.
    S(zp,zp) performs an innovative analysis of one of modern logic's most celebrated cornerstones: the proof of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem. The book applies the semiotic theories of French post- structuralists such as Julia Kristeva, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze to shed new light on a fundamental question: how do mathematical signs produce meaning and make sense? S(zp,zp) analyses the text of the proof of Gödel's result, and shows that mathematical language, like other forms of language, enjoys the full complexity of (...)
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  23.  10
    The longhouse of language.Roy Wagner - 1994 - Semiotica 99 (1-2):217-220.
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  24.  21
    The Talk of Koriki: A Daribi Contact Cult.Roy Wagner - 1979 - Social Research: An International Quarterly 46.
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  25.  35
    Vújà de and the quintessentialists' Guild.Roy Wagner - 2011 - Common Knowledge 17 (1):155-162.
    This essay asks: Is “culture” the subject of a communication among anthropologists, or are anthropologists subjects to a communication among cultures? Put more simply, is there only one culture, comprised of multiplex variations recovered from various parts of an ever-changing world, or are there a great many, all of them variations on a single theoretical insight, which anthropologists have made up in secret and carefully keep as a secret from themselves? (Why not? the author asks, adding that such is exactly (...)
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