Frank Plumpton Ramsey

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Frank Plumpton Ramsey

British philosopher and mathematician

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Frank Plumpton Ramsey was a British philosopher and mathematician known for his contributions to logic and the philosophy of mathematics. He is particularly recognized for his work on the theory of truth, where he proposed that the concept of truth is essentially redundant. Ramsey argued that stating "It is true that p" is equivalent to simply stating "p," suggesting that the word "true" adds little substantive meaning.123

Ramsey also made significant contributions to combinatorics with what are now known as Ramsey numbers. His theorem in this area demonstrates that within any sufficiently large set of items, there will always be a subset with a specific property. For example, in any group of six people, there must be at least three who all know each other or at least three who are all strangers.4

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Ludwig Wittgenstein
Braithwaite and Frank Ramsey and the other based in Vienna and including Moritz Schlick, Friedrich Waismann, and other logical positivists later collectively known as the Vienna Circle. Both groups tried to make contact with Wittgenstein. Frank Ramsey made two trips to Puchberg—the small Austrian village in which…
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Braithwaite and Frank Ramsey and the other based in Vienna and including Moritz Schlick, Friedrich Waismann, and other logical positivists later collectively known as the Vienna Circle. Both groups tried to make contact with Wittgenstein. Frank Ramsey made two trips to Puchberg—the small Austrian village in which…
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history of logic
Principia Mathematica and its aftermath
…young English logician and philosopher Frank Ramsey showed how the system of Principia Mathematica could be revised by taking a purely extensional view of higher-order objects such as properties, relations, and classes—that is, by defining purely in terms of the objects to which they apply or the objects they contain.…
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…young English logician and philosopher Frank Ramsey showed how the system of Principia Mathematica could be revised by taking a purely extensional view of higher-order objects such as properties, relations, and classes—that is, by defining purely in terms of the objects to which they apply or the objects they contain.…
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combinatorics
Ramsey’s numbers
…obtained by the British mathematician Frank Plumpton Ramsey follows. He proved that for r ≥ 1, p ≤ r, q ≤ r there exists a number N_r(p, q) depending solely on p, q, r such that if n > N_r(p, q), there is either a subset A of
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…obtained by the British mathematician Frank Plumpton Ramsey follows. He proved that for r ≥ 1, p ≤ r, q ≤ r there exists a number N_r(p, q) depending solely on p, q, r such that if n > N_r(p, q), there is either a subset A of
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realism
Modest objective truth
, Frank P. Ramsey, A.J. Ayer, and more recently Paul Horwich—have denied that truth can be a substantial property, arguing that all there is to the notion of truth is captured by instances of the equivalence schema. Even if this is accepted, however, it does not…
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, Frank P. Ramsey, A.J. Ayer, and more recently Paul Horwich—have denied that truth can be a substantial property, arguing that all there is to the notion of truth is captured by instances of the equivalence schema. Even if this is accepted, however, it does not…
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truth
Deflationism
Tarski, including Gottlob Frege and Frank Ramsey, had suspected that the key to understanding truth lay in the odd fact that putting “It is true that…” in front of an assertion changes almost nothing. It is true that snow is white if and only if snow is white. At most…
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Tarski, including Gottlob Frege and Frank Ramsey, had suspected that the key to understanding truth lay in the odd fact that putting “It is true that…” in front of an assertion changes almost nothing. It is true that snow is white if and only if snow is white. At most…
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probability theory
An alternative interpretation of probability
…von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Frank P. Ramsey, and Leonard J. Savage, among others. Ramsey and Savage stressed the importance of subjective probability as a concomitant ingredient of decision making in the face of uncertainty. An alternative approach to subjective probability without the use of utility theory was developed by…
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…von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, Frank P. Ramsey, and Leonard J. Savage, among others. Ramsey and Savage stressed the importance of subjective probability as a concomitant ingredient of decision making in the face of uncertainty. An alternative approach to subjective probability without the use of utility theory was developed by…
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