Primary Contributions (3)
Mathematical Platonism, in metaphysics and the philosophy of mathematics, the doctrine that there exist abstract objects—objects that are wholly nonspatiotemporal, nonphysical, and nonmental—and that there are true mathematical sentences that express true descriptions of such objects. The…
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Publications (3)
Free Will (February 2014)
By Mark Balaguer
A philosopher considers whether the scientific and philosophical arguments against free will are reason enough to give up our belief in it.In our daily life, it really seems as though we have free will, that what we do from moment to moment is determined by conscious decisions that we freely make. You get up from the couch, you go for a walk, you eat chocolate ice cream. It seems that we're in control of actions like these; if we are, then we have free will. But in recent years,...
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Free Will as an Open Scientific Problem (2012)
By Mark Balaguer
An argument that the problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events.
In this largely antimetaphysical treatment of free will and determinism, Mark Balaguer argues that the philosophical problem of free will boils down to an open scientific question about the causal histories of certain kinds of neural events. In the course of his argument, Balaguer provides a naturalistic defense of the libertarian view...
Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics (2001)
By Mark Balaguer
In this highly absorbing work, Balaguer demonstrates that no good arguments exist either for or against mathematical platonism-for example, the view that abstract mathematical objects do exist and that mathematical theories are descriptions of such objects. Balaguer does this by establishing that both platonism and anti-platonism are justifiable views. Introducing a form of platonism, called "full-blooded platonism," that solves all problems traditionally associated with the view, he proceeds to...
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