[Math] Contemporary philosophy of mathematics

big-listmathematical-philosophyreference-request

Starting to write an introduction to the philosophy of mathematics, I find tons of positions that are of historical interest. Which philosophical positions are explicitly considered these days, say in the last ten years?

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Let me mention a few current issues on which I have been involved in the philosophy of mathematics. Of course there are also many other issues on which people are working.

Debate on pluralism. First, there is currently a lively or indeed raging debate on the issue of pluralism in the philosophy of set theory. If one takes set theory as a foundational theory, in the sense that essentially every mathematical argument or construction can be viewed as taking place or modeled within set theory (whether or not it could also be represented in other foundational theories), then the question arises whether set-theoretic questions have determinate answers. On the singularist or universist view, every set-theoretic question has a final, determinate truth value in the one true set-theoretic universe, the Platonic realm of set theory. On the pluralist or multiverse views, we have different conceptions of set giving rise to different set-theoretic truths. Both views are a form of realism, and so the debate breaks apart the question of realism or Platonism from the question of the uniqueness of the intended interpretation.

I discuss these issues at length in my paper

There is a growing literature discussing these issues, part of which you can find here. See also the multiverse tag on my blog.

Potentialism. Another currently active topic of research is the issue of potentialism. This topic arises classically in the idea of potential versus actual infinity, with quite a long history, but current work is looking into various aspects of the classical debate, particularly with respect to considering potentialism as a modal theory.

That is, one separates the potentialist idea from the issue of infinity, and looks upon the potentialism as concerned with the idea of having a family of partial universes, or universe fragments, which can be extended to one another as the universe unfolds.

Øystein Linnebo has emphasized this modal nature to potentialism, and he and I undertook to analyze the precise modal commitments of various kinds of set-theoretic potentialism in our paper:

See also the slides for the tutorial lectures series I gave recently on Set-theoretic potentialism, Winter School in Abstract Analysis 2018.

For an example, I believe that the use of Grothendieck-Zermelo universes in category theory exemplifies the potentialist outlook, since one works inside a given universe until a need arises for a larger universe concept, in which case one freely moves to the larger universe concept.

My work on arithmetic potentialism in

provides a way to understand the philosophy of ultrafinitism, viewing it ultimately as a form a potentialism.