Related papers: The Potential in Frege's Theorem
The notions of potential infinity (understood as expressing a direction) and actual infinity (expressing a quantity) are investigated. It is shown that the notion of actual infinity is inconsistent, because the set of all (finite) natural…
We present the model theoretic concepts that allow mathematics to be developed with the notion of the potential infinite instead of the actual infinite. The potential infinite is understood as a dynamic notion, being an indefinitely…
Frege's theorem says that second-order Peano arithmetic is interpretable in Hume's Principle and full impredicative comprehension. Hume's Principle is one example of an abstraction principle, while another paradigmatic example is Basic Law…
Possibility theory offers a framework where both Lehmann's "preferential inference" and the more productive (but less cautious) "rational closure inference" can be represented. However, there are situations where the second inference does…
This paper presents new constructions of models of Hume's Principle and Basic Law V with restricted amounts of comprehension. The techniques used in these constructions are drawn from hyperarithmetic theory and the model theory of fields,…
Ultrafinitism postulates that we can only compute on relatively short objects, and numbers beyond certain value are not available. This approach would also forbid many forms of infinitary reasoning and allow to remove certain paradoxes…
Potentialism is the view that objects are successively generated in an incompletable process. A strict version of the view adds that truths are successively determined. Strict potentialism can be analyzed using two modalities: one for the…
We propose a generalized finiteness principle for physical theories, in terms of the concept of tameness in mathematical logic. A tame function or space can only have a finite amount of structure, in a precise sense which we explain.…
The stipulation that no measurable quantity could have an infinite value is indispensable in physics. At the same time, in mathematics, the possibility of considering an infinite procedure as a whole is usually taken for granted. However,…
When modelling spacetime and classical physical fields, one typically assumes smoothness (infinite differentiability). But this assumption and its philosophical implications have not been sufficiently scrutinized. For example, we can appeal…
In a recent paper, Kaye and Wong proved the following result, which they considered to belong to the folklore of mathematical logic. THEOREM: The first-order theories of Peano arithmetic and ZF with the axiom of infinity negated are…
Many recent writers in the philosophy of mathematics have put great weight on the relative categoricity of the traditional axiomatizations of our foundational theories of arithmetic and set theory (\cite{Parsons1990a}, \cite{Parsons2008}…
The compactness theorem for a logic states, roughly, that the satisfiability of a set of well-formed formulas can be determined from the satisfiability of its finite subsets, and vice versa. Usually, proofs of this theorem depend on the…
Frege's definition of the real numbers, as envisaged in the second volume of \textit{Grundgesetze der Arithmetik}, is fatally flawed by the inconsistency of Frege's ill-fated \textit{Basic Law V}. We restate Frege's definition in a…
I investigate the modal commitments of various conceptions of the philosophy of arithmetic potentialism. Specifically, I shall consider the potentialist conceptions arising from a model-theoretic view of the models of arithmetic as possible…
Our understanding about things is conceptual. By stating that we reason about objects, it is in fact not the objects but concepts referring to them that we manipulate. Now, so long just as we acknowledge infinitely extending notions such as…
Some notions in mathematics can be considered relative. Relative is a term used to denote when the variation in the position of an observer implies variation in properties or measures on the observed object. We know, from Skolem theorem,…
We consider a randomised version of Kleene's realisability interpretation of intuitionistic arithmetic in which computability is replaced with randomised computability with positive probability. In particular, we show that (i) the set of…
Lindstr\"om's Theorem characterizes first order logic as the maximal logic satisfying the Compactness Theorem and the Downward L\"owenheim-Skolem Theorem. If we do not assume that logics are closed under negation, there is an obvious…
A classical reconstruction of Wright's first-order logic of strict finitism is presented. Strict finitism is a constructive standpoint of mathematics that is more restrictive than intuitionism. Wright sketched the semantics of said logic in…