Internalism and the Determinacy of Mathematics.

A major challenge in the philosophy of mathematics is to explain how mathematical language can pick out unique structures and acquire determinate content. In recent work, Button and Walsh have introduced a view they call 'internalism', according to which mathematical content is explained by internal...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Mind (0026-4423) Vol. 132; no. 528; pp. 1028 - 1053
Autores principales: Picollo, Lavinia, Waxman, Daniel
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Oct2023
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:A major challenge in the philosophy of mathematics is to explain how mathematical language can pick out unique structures and acquire determinate content. In recent work, Button and Walsh have introduced a view they call 'internalism', according to which mathematical content is explained by internal categoricity results formulated and proven in second-order logic. In this paper, we critically examine the internalist response to the challenge and discuss the philosophical significance of internal categoricity results. Surprisingly, as we argue, while internalism arguably explains how we pick out unique mathematical structures, this does not suffice to account for the determinacy of mathematical discourse.