philosophy of mathematics

philosophy of mathematics, branch of philosophy that is concerned with two major questions: one concerning the meanings of ordinary mathematical sentences and the other concerning the issue of whether abstract objects exist. The first is a straightforward question of interpretation: What is the best way to interpret standard mathematical sentences and theories? In other words, what is really meant by ordinary mathematical sentences such as “3 is prime,” “2 + 2 = 4,” and “There are infinitely many prime numbers.” Thus, a central task of the philosophy of mathematics is to construct a semantic theory for the language of mathematics. Semantics is concerned with what certain expressions mean (or refer to) in ordinary discourse. So, for instance, the claim that in English the term Mars denotes the Mississippi River is a false semantic theory; and the claim that in English Mars denotes the fourth planet from the Sun is a true semantic theory. Thus, to say that philosophers of mathematics are interested in figuring out how to interpret mathematical sentences is just to say that they want to provide a semantic theory for the language of mathematics.

Philosophers are interested in this question for two main reasons: 1) it is not at all obvious what the right answer is, and 2) the various answers seem to have deep philosophical implications. More specifically, different interpretations of mathematics seem to produce different metaphysical views about the nature of reality. These points can be brought out by looking at the sentences of arithmetic, which seem to make straightforward claims about certain objects. Consider, for instance, the sentence “4 is even.” This seems to be a simple subject-predicate sentence of the form “S is P”—like, for instance, the sentence “The Moon is round.” This latter sentence makes a straightforward claim about the Moon, and likewise, “4 is even” seems to make a straightforward claim about the number 4. This, however, is where philosophers get puzzled. For it is not clear what the number 4 is supposed to be. What kind of thing is a number? Some philosophers (antirealists) have responded here with disbelief—according to them, there are simply no such things as numbers. Others (realists) think that there are such things as numbers (as well as other mathematical objects). Among the realists, however, there are several different views of what kind of thing a number is. Some realists think that numbers are mental objects (something like ideas in people’s heads). Other realists claim that numbers exist outside of people’s heads, as features of the physical world. There is, however, a third view of the nature of numbers, known as Platonism or mathematical Platonism, that has been more popular in the history of philosophy. This is the view that numbers are abstract objects, where an abstract object is both nonphysical and nonmental. According to Platonists, abstract objects exist but not anywhere in the physical world or in people’s minds. In fact, they do not exist in space and time at all.

In what follows, more will be said to clarify exactly what Platonists have in mind by an abstract object. However, it is important to note that many philosophers simply do not believe in abstract objects; they think that to believe in abstract objects—objects that are wholly nonspatiotemporal, nonphysical, and nonmental—is to believe in weird, occult entities. In fact, the question of whether abstract objects exist is one of the oldest and most controversial questions of philosophy. The view that there do exist such things goes back to Plato, and serious resistance to the view can be traced back at least to Aristotle. This ongoing controversy has survived for more than 2,000 years.

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The second major question with which the philosophy of mathematics is concerned is this: “Do abstract objects exist?” This question is deeply related to the semantic question about how the sentences and theories of mathematics should be interpreted. For if Platonism is right that the best interpretation of mathematics is that sentences such as “4 is even” are about abstract objects (and it will become clear below that there are some very good reasons for endorsing this interpretation), and if (what seems pretty obvious) sentences such as “4 is even” are true, then it would seem natural to endorse the view that abstract objects exist.

The next section, Mathematical Platonism, provides a sketch of the Platonist view of mathematics and how it has developed. The following section, Mathematical anti-Platonism, provides a sketch of the alternatives to Platonism—that is, the various anti-Platonist views that are available to those who cannot bring themselves to believe in abstract objects. Finally, the last section, Mathematical Platonism: for and against, presents the best arguments for and against Platonism.

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Numbers and Mathematics

Mathematical Platonism

Formal definition

Mathematical Platonism, formally defined, is the view that (a) there exist abstract objects—objects that are wholly nonspatiotemporal, nonphysical, and nonmental—and (b) there are true mathematical sentences that provide true descriptions of such objects. The discussion of Platonism that follows will address both (a) and (b).

It is best to start with what is meant by an abstract object. Among contemporary Platonists, the most common view is that the really defining trait of an abstract object is nonspatiotemporality. That is, abstract objects are not located anywhere in the physical universe, and they are also entirely nonmental, yet they have always existed and they always will exist. This does not preclude having mental ideas of abstract objects; according to Platonists, one can—e.g., one might have a mental idea of the number 4. It does not follow from this, though, that the number 4 is just a mental idea. After all, people have ideas of the Moon in their heads too, but it does not follow from this that the Moon is just an idea, because the Moon and people’s ideas of the Moon are distinct things. Thus, when Platonists say that the number 4 is an abstract object, they mean to say that it is a real and objective thing that, like the Moon, exists independently of people and their thinking but, unlike the Moon, is nonphysical.

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Abstract objects are also, according to Platonists, unchanging and entirely noncausal. Because abstract objects are not extended in space and not made of physical matter, it follows that they cannot enter into cause-and-effect relationships with other objects.

Platonists also claim that mathematical theorems provide true descriptions of such objects. What does this claim amount to? Consider the positive integers (1, 2, 3,…). According to Platonists, the theory of arithmetic says what this sequence of abstract objects is like. Over the years, mathematicians have discovered all sorts of interesting facts about this sequence. For instance, Euclid proved more than 2,000 years ago that there are infinitely many prime numbers among the positive integers. Thus, according to Platonists, the sequence of positive integers is an object of study, just like the solar system is an object of study for astronomers.

Now, so far, only one kind of mathematical object has been discussed, namely, numbers. But there are many different kinds of mathematical objects—functions, sets, vectors, circles, and so on—and for Platonists these are all abstract objects. Moreover, Platonists also believe that there are such things as set-theoretic hierarchies and that set theory describes these structures. And so on for all the various branches of mathematics. In general, according to Platonists, mathematics is the study of the nature of various mathematical structures, which are abstract in nature.

Platonism has been around for over two millennia, and over the years it has been one of the most popular views among philosophers of mathematics. Yet, for most of the history of philosophy, mathematical Platonism was stagnant. In the late 19th century Gottlob Frege of Germany, who founded modern mathematical logic, developed what is widely thought to be the most powerful argument in favour of Platonism; but he did not alter the formulation of the view. Likewise, in the 20th century Kurt Gödel of Austria and Willard Van Orman Quine of the United States introduced hypotheses in an attempt to explain how human beings could acquire knowledge of abstract objects—but again, neither of these thinkers altered the Platonist view itself. (Gödel’s hypothesis was about the nature of human beings, and Quine’s hypothesis was about the nature of empirical evidence.)