Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T12:18:57.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

LOGICISM, INTERPRETABILITY, AND KNOWLEDGE OF ARITHMETIC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2014

SEAN WALSH*
Affiliation:
Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, University of California, Irvine
*
*DEPARTMENT OF LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE IRVINE, CALIFORNIA Email:swalsh108@gmail.com

Abstract

A crucial part of the contemporary interest in logicism in the philosophy of mathematics resides in its idea that arithmetical knowledge may be based on logical knowledge. Here, an implementation of this idea is considered that holds that knowledge of arithmetical principles may be based on two things: (i) knowledge of logical principles and (ii) knowledge that the arithmetical principles are representable in the logical principles. The notions of representation considered here are related to theory-based and structure-based notions of representation from contemporary mathematical logic. It is argued that the theory-based versions of such logicism are either too liberal (the plethora problem) or are committed to intuitively incorrect closure conditions (the consistency problem). Structure-based versions must on the other hand respond to a charge of begging the question (the circularity problem) or explain how one may have a knowledge of structure in advance of a knowledge of axioms (the signature problem). This discussion is significant because it gives us a better idea of what a notion of representation must look like if it is to aid in realizing some of the traditional epistemic aims of logicism in the philosophy of mathematics.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Symbolic Logic 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahlbrandt, G., & Ziegler, M. (1986). Quasi-finitely axiomatizable totally categorical theories. Annals of Pure and Applied Logic, 30(1), 6382.Google Scholar
Benacerraf, P. (1981). Frege: The last logicist. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 6, 1735. Reprinted in Demopoulos (1995).Google Scholar
Blanchette, P. A. (1994). Frege’s reduction. History and Philosophy of Logic, 15, 85103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blanchette, P. A. (2012). Frege’s Conception of Logic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boolos, G. (1984). The justification of mathematical induction. In Asquith, P. D., and Kitcher, P., editors. Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2, University of Chicago Press. pp. 469475. Reprinted in Boolos (1998).Google Scholar
Boolos, G. (1996). On the proof of Frege’s theorem. In Morton, A., and Stephen, P. S., editors. Benacerraf and His Critics. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 143159. Reprinted in Boolos (1998).Google Scholar
Boolos, G. (1998). Logic, Logic, and Logic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Edited by Jeffrey, Richard.Google Scholar
Bos, H. J. M. (2001). Redefining Geometrical Exactness: Descartes’ Transformation of the Early Modern Concept of Construction. Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences. New York, NY: Springer.Google Scholar
Burgess, J. P. (2005). Fixing Frege. Princeton Monographs in Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Buss, S. R. (2006). Nelson’s work on logic and foundations and other reflections on the foundations of mathematics. In Faris, W. G., editor, Diffusion, Quantum Theory, and Radically Elementary Mathematics, Vol. 47. Mathematical Notes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 183208.Google Scholar
Cook, R. T., editor (2007). The Arché Papers on the Mathematics of Abstraction, Vol. 71. The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Corcoran, J. (1980). On definitional equivalence and related topics. History and Philosophy of Logic, 1, 231234.Google Scholar
de Bouvère, K. (1965a). Logical synonymity. Indagationes Mathematicae, 27, 622629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Bouvère, K. (1965b). Synonymous theories. In Addison, J. W., editors. The Theory of Models. Amsterdam: North-Holland, pp. 402406.Google Scholar
Demopoulos, W. (1994). Frege and the rigorization of analysis. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 23, 225246. Reprinted in Demopoulos (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demopoulos, W., editor (1995). Frege’s Philosophy of Mathematics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Demopoulos, W., & Clark, P. (2005). The logicism of Frege, Dedekind, and Russell. In Shapiro, S., editor. The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 129165.Google Scholar
Dummett, M. (1996). Frege and the paradox of analysis. In Frege and Other Philosophers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1752.Google Scholar
Ebbinghaus, H.-D. (1985). Extended logics: The general framework. In Barwise, J., and Feferman, S., editors. Model-Theoretic Logics, Perspectives in Mathematical Logic, New York: Springer, pp. 2576.Google Scholar
Enayat, A., Schmerl, J. H., & Visser, A. (2011). ω-models of finite set theory. In Kennedy, J., and Kossak, R., editors. Set Theory, Arithmetic, and Foundations of Mathematics: Theorems, Philosophies, Vol. 36. Lecture Notes in Logic, La Jolla, CA: Association for Symbolic Logic, pp. 4365.Google Scholar
Enderton, H. B. (2001). A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (second edition). Burlington: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Feferman, S. (1960/1961). Arithmetization of metamathematics in a general setting. Fundamenta Mathematicae, 49, 3592.Google Scholar
Fischer, M. (2010). Deflationism and reducibility. In Czarnecki, T., Katarzyna Kijania-Placek, O. P., and Wolenski, J., editors. The Analytical Way. Proceedings of the 6th European Congress of Analytic Philosophy, London: College Publications, pp. 357369.Google Scholar
Frege, G. (1967). Kleine Schriften. Hildesheim: Olms. Edited by Ignacio Angelelli.Google Scholar
Frege, G. (1980). The Foundations of Arithmetic: A Logico-Mathematical Enquiry into the Concept of Number (second edition). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Translated by Austin, John Langshaw.Google Scholar
Givant, S., & Halmos, P. (2009). Introduction to Boolean Algebras. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Goodman, N. (1951). The Structure of Appearance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hájek, P., & Pudlák, P. (1998). Metamathematics of First-Order Arithmetic. Perspectives in Mathematical Logic. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Hale, B. (1987). Abstract Objects. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hale, B. (2000). Reals by abstraction. Philosophia Mathematica, 8(3), 100123. Reprinted in Hale & Wright (2001), Cook (2007).Google Scholar
Hale, B., & Wright, C. (2001). The Reason’s Proper Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Heck, R. G Jr.. (1997). Finitude and Hume’s principle. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 26(6), 589617. Reprinted in Cook2007 and with additional postscript in Heck (2011).Google Scholar
Heck, R. G Jr.. (1999). Frege’s theorem: An introduction. The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 7, 5673.Google Scholar
Heck, R. G Jr.. (2000). Cardinality, counting, and equinumerosity. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 41(3), 187209. Reprinted in Heck (2011).Google Scholar
Heck, R. G Jr.. (2011). Frege’s Theorem. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hellman, G. (1978). Accuracy and actuality. Erkenntnis, 12, 209228.Google Scholar
Hochberg, H. (1956). Peano, Russell, and logicism. Analysis, 16(5), 118120.Google Scholar
Hochberg, H. (1970). Russell’s reduction of arithmetic to logic. In Klemke, E., editor, Essays on Bertrand Russell, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, pp. 396415. Reprinted in Hochberg (1984).Google Scholar
Hochberg, H. (1984). Logic, Ontology, and Language: Essays on Truth and Reality. München: Analytica (Philosophia Verlag).Google Scholar
Hodes, H. (1990). Where do the natural numbers come from? Synthese, 84(3), 347407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodges, W. (1993). Model Theory, Vol. 42. Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hook, J. L. (1985). A note on interpretations of many-sorted theories. The Journal of Symbolic Logic, 50(2), 372374.Google Scholar
Horsten, L. (2011). The Tarskian Turn. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
Iwan, S. (2000). On the untenability of Nelson’s predicativism. Erkenntnis, 53(1–2),147154.Google Scholar
Kalsbeek, M. (1989). An Orey Sentence for Predicative Arithmetic. Unpublished. Master’s Thesis, Institute for Language, Logic, and Information. ITLI Prepublication Series X-89–01.Google Scholar
Kleene, S. C. (1952). Introduction to Metamathematics, Vol. 1. Bibliotheca Mathematica. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Koellner, P. (2009). Truth in mathematics: The question of pluralism. In Bueno, O., andLinnebo, O., editors. New Waves in the Philosophy of Mathematics. New York: Palmgrave, pp. 80116.Google Scholar
Leitgeb, H. (2009). On formal and informal provability. In Bueno, O., and Linnebo, O., editors. New Waves in the Philosophy of Mathematics. New York: Palmgrave, pp. 263299.Google Scholar
Lindström, P. (2003). Aspects of Incompleteness (second edition), Vol. 10. Lecture Notes in Logic. Urbana, IL: Association for Symbolic Logic.Google Scholar
Manzano, M. (1996). Extensions of First Order Logic, Vol. 19. Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marker, D. (2002). Model Theory: An Introduction, Vol. 217. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Monk, J. D. (1976). Mathematical Logic. Number 37 in Graduate Texts in Mathematics. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Nelson, E. (1986). Predicative Arithmetic, Vol. 32. Mathematical Notes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nies, A. (2007). Describing groups. Bulletin of Symbolic Logic, 13(3), 305339.Google Scholar
Papert, S. (1960). Sur le réductionniseme logique. In Gréco, P., Grize, J.-B., Papert, S., and Piaget, J., editors, Problèmes de la construction du nombre, Vol. 11. Etudes d’épistémologie génétique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, pp. 97116.Google Scholar
Parsons, C. (1965). Frege’s theory of number. In Black, M., editor. Philosophy in America, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 180203. Reprinted with a new postscript in Parsons1983, Demopoulos (1995).Google Scholar
Parsons, C. (1983). Mathematics in Philosophy: Selected Essays. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, C. (2008). Mathematical Thought and Its Objects. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Polánski, M. (2009). Goodman’s extensional isomorphism and syntactical interpretations. Theoria. An International Journal for Theory, History and Foundations of Science, 65, 203211.Google Scholar
Quine, W. (1964). Ontological reduction and the world of numbers. The Journal of Philosophy, 61(7), 209216. Reprinted in Quine (1976).Google Scholar
Quine, W. (1976). Ways of Paradox and Other Essays. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Resnik, M. D. (1981). Mathematics as a science of patterns: Ontology and reference. Nous, 15(4), 529550.Google Scholar
Resnik, M. D. (1997). Mathematics as a Science of Patterns. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Shapiro, S. (1991). Foundations without Foundationalism: A Case for Second-Order Logic, Vol. 17. Oxford Logic Guides. New York, NY: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, S. (2000a). Frege meets Dedekind: A neo-logicist treatment of real analysis. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 41(4), 335364. Reprinted in Cook (2007).Google Scholar
Shapiro, S. (2000b). Philosophy of Mathematics: Structure and Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, S. G. (2009). Subsystems of Second Order Arithmetic (second edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steiner, M. (1975). Mathematical Knowledge. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Visser, A. (2006). Categories of theories and interpretations. In Enayat, A., Kalantari, I., and Moniri, M., editors, Logic in Tehran, Vol. 26. Lecture Notes in Logic, La Jolla, CA: Association for Symbolic Logic, pp. 284341.Google Scholar
Visser, A. (2011). Hume’s principle, beginnings. Review of Symbolic Logic, 4(1), 114129.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (2007a). Conceptual truth. Aristotelian Society, 80(1), 141.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. (2007b). The Philosophy of Philosophy. Blackwell: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Wright, C. (1983). Frege’s Conception of Numbers as Objects, Vol. 2. Scots Philosophical Monographs. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, C. (1998a). On the harmless impredictavity of N = (Hume’s principle). In Schirn, M., editor. Philosophy of Mathematics Today. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 393–368 Reprinted in Hale & Wright (2001).Google Scholar
Wright, C. (1998b). Response to Dummett. In Schirn, M., editor. Philosophy of Mathematics Today. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 389405. Reprinted in Hale & Wright (2001).Google Scholar
Wright, C. (1999). Is Hume’s principle analytic? Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 40(1), 630. Reprinted in Hale & Wright (2001) and Cook (2007).Google Scholar
Wright, C. (2000). Neo-Fregean foundations for real analysis: Some reflections on Frege’s constraint. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 41(4), 317334. Reprinted in Cook (2007).Google Scholar