Related papers: Mathematical conceptualism
We propose a new definition of actual causes, using structural equations to model counterfactuals.We show that the definitions yield a plausible and elegant account ofcausation that handles well examples which have caused problems forother…
Analysing several characteristic mathematical models: natural and real numbers, Euclidean geometry, group theory, and set theory, I argue that a mathematical model in its final form is a junction of a set of axioms and an internal partial…
The aim of the paper is to develop a proper mathematical formalism which can help to clarify the necessary conceptual plugins to the special principle of relativity and leads to a deeper understanding of the principle in its widest…
Cathoristic logic is a multi-modal logic where negation is replaced by a novel operator allowing the expression of incompatible sentences. We present the syntax and semantics of the logic including complete proof rules, and establish a…
This document is both a synthesis of current notions about complex systems, and a practical approach description. A disambiguation is proposed and exposes possible reasons for controversies related to causation and emergence. Theoretical…
The classical simulation of physical processes using standard models of computation is fraught with problems. On the other hand, attempts at modelling real-world computation with the aim of isolating its hypercomputational content have…
"Clarithmetic" is a generic name for formal number theories similar to Peano arithmetic, but based on computability logic (see http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~giorgi/cl.html) instead of the more traditional classical or intuitionistic logics.…
A major question in philosophy of science involves the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in physics. Why should mathematics, created or discovered, with nothing empirical in mind be so perfectly suited to describe the laws of the…
This article aims to develop a new account of scientific explanation for computer simulations. To this end, two questions are answered: what is the explanatory relation for computer simulations? and what kind of epistemic gain should be…
These Course Notes provide an introduction to mathematical proofs for undergraduate students transitioning from computational calculus to abstract mathematics. Topics include propositional logic, proof techniques, mathematical induction,…
The goal of this note is to provide a geometric setting in which generalized arithmetic means are best predictors in an appropriate metric. This characterization provides a geometric interpretation to the concept of certainty equivalent.…
A review is given of some mathematical contributions, ideas and questions concerning liquid crystals.
Quantum computing exposes the brilliance of quantum mechanics through computer science and, as such, gives oneself a marvelous and exhilarating journey to go through. This article leads along that journey with a historical and current…
Interactive theorem provers based on dependent type theory have the flexibility to support both constructive and classical reasoning. Constructive reasoning is supported natively by dependent type theory and classical reasoning is typically…
Stephen Toulmin once observed that `it has never been customary for philosophers to pay much attention to the rhetoric of mathematical debate'. Might the application of Toulmin's layout of arguments to mathematics remedy this oversight?…
The theory that all processes in the universe are computational is attractive in its promise to provide an understandable theory of everything. I want to suggest here that this pancomputationalism is not sufficiently clear on which problem…
A little general abstract combinatorial nonsense delivered in this note is a presentation of some old and basic concepts, central to discrete mathematics, in terms of new words. The treatment is from a structural and systematic point of…
Sometimes we obtain attractive results when associating facts to simple elements. The goal of this work is to introduce a possible alternative in the study of the dynamics of rational maps.
Our aim is to solve a quite old question on the difference between expandability and compact expandability. Toward this, we further investigate the logic of countable cofinality.
We explore the theory of illfounded and cyclic proofs for the propositional modal $\mu$-calculus. A fine analysis of provability for classical and intuitionistic modal logic provides a novel bridge between finitary, cyclic and illfounded…