30,277 research outputs found
On Constructive Axiomatic Method
In this last version of the paper one may find a critical overview of some
recent philosophical literature on Axiomatic Method and Genetic Method.Comment: 25 pages, no figure
Did Lobachevsky Have A Model Of His "imaginary Geometry"?
The invention of non-Euclidean geometries is often seen through the optics of
Hilbertian formal axiomatic method developed later in the 19th century. However
such an anachronistic approach fails to provide a sound reading of
Lobachevsky's geometrical works. Although the modern notion of model of a given
theory has a counterpart in Lobachevsky's writings its role in Lobachevsky's
geometrical theory turns to be very unusual. Lobachevsky doesn't consider
various models of Hyperbolic geometry, as the modern reader would expect, but
uses a non-standard model of Euclidean plane (as a particular surface in the
Hyperbolic 3-space). In this paper I consider this Lobachevsky's construction,
and show how it can be better analyzed within an alternative non-Hilbertian
foundational framework, which relates the history of geometry of the 19th
century to some recent developments in the field.Comment: 31 pages, 8 figure
Categories without structures
The popular view according to which Category theory provides a support for
Mathematical Structuralism is erroneous. Category-theoretic foundations of
mathematics require a different philosophy of mathematics. While structural
mathematics studies invariant forms (Awodey) categorical mathematics studies
covariant transformations which, generally, don t have any invariants. In this
paper I develop a non-structuralist interpretation of categorical mathematics
and show its consequences for history of mathematics and mathematics education.Comment: 28 page
Categories and the Foundations of Classical Field Theories
I review some recent work on applications of category theory to questions
concerning theoretical structure and theoretical equivalence of classical field
theories, including Newtonian gravitation, general relativity, and Yang-Mills
theories.Comment: 26 pages. Written for a volume entitled "Categories for the Working
Philosopher", edited by Elaine Landr
Mathematical Models of Abstract Systems: Knowing abstract geometric forms
Scientists use models to know the world. It i susually assumed that mathematicians doing pure mathematics do not. Mathematicians doing pure mathematics prove theorems about mathematical entities like sets, numbers, geometric figures, spaces, etc., they compute various functions and solve equations. In this paper, I want to exhibit models build by mathematicians to study the fundamental components of spaces and, more generally, of mathematical forms. I focus on one area of mathematics where models occupy a central role, namely homotopy theory. I argue that mathematicians introduce genuine models and I offer a rough classification of these models
Higher Theory and the Three Problems of Physics
According to the Butterfield--Isham proposal, to understand quantum gravity
we must revise the way we view the universe of mathematics. However, this paper
demonstrates that the current elaborations of this programme neglect quantum
interactions. The paper then introduces the Faddeev--Mickelsson anomaly which
obstructs the renormalization of Yang--Mills theory, suggesting that to
theorise on many-particle systems requires a many-topos view of mathematics
itself: higher theory. As our main contribution, the topos theoretic framework
is used to conceptualise the fact that there are principally three different
quantisation problems, the differences of which have been ignored not just by
topos physicists but by most philosophers of science. We further argue that if
higher theory proves out to be necessary for understanding quantum gravity, its
implications to philosophy will be foundational: higher theory challenges the
propositional concept of truth and thus the very meaning of theorising in
science.Comment: 23 pages, 1 table
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