Foundations Interest Group

Meeting time: Wednesdays 1:30–3:30 PM

Meeting place: Center Conference Room, 737 Heller Hall

The foundations interest group (FIG) reads and discusses works of mutual interest in the philosophy and foundations of mathematics and in the philosophy of logic. We select readings for a variety of reasons: to keep up on the most exciting developments in the field, to help participants scrutinize literature relevant to research, to provide feedback on works in progress being written by FIG, to revisit classic articles in the literature, and sometimes just to have fun discussing a topic related to the foundations of mathematics and the philosophy of logic.

Our meetings are informal and some participants need to arrive late or leave early because of scheduling conflicts. All faculty and graduate students from the University of Minnesota and area colleges and universities are welcome to attend whenever they would like (without invitation) and without giving advanced notice. Undergraduates are included by invitation. If you know of an undergraduate who is well suited and possibly interested, please contact Roy T. Cook so an invitation can be extended.

Discussion Topics for Fall 2009

During the Fall 2009 semester, our main goal is to work through a number of articles on unrestrictedly general quantification and related topics (such as indefinite extensibility). All readings can be found in:

Absolute Generality edited by Agustin Rayo and Gabriel Uzquiano, New York: Oxford University Press 2006 ISBN 0199276439

The first Wednesday in November we shall take advantage of a visit by Jeffrey Barrett by reading his paper on “The Physical Possibility of Ordinal Computation” and discussing it with him.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, however, we shall take a short break from this topic in order to discuss Logicomix, a recent graphic novel portraying the life of Bertrand Russell.

September 23: “Introduction” to Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 1–19. (PDF) The pdf is password protected. For access please contact mcps@umn.edu

September 30: “Relatively Unrestricted Quantification”, by Kit Fine, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 20–44.

October 7: “Context and Unresticted Quantification”, by Michael Glanzberg, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 45–74.

October 14: “Against ‘Absolutely Everything’!””, by Geoffrey Hellman, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 75–97.

October 21: “Sets, Properties, and Unrestricted Quantification”, by Oystein Linnebo, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 149–178.

October 28: “There’s a Rule for Everything”, by Vann McGee, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 179–202.

November 4: “On the Physical Possibility of Ordinal Computation”, Jeff Barrett (discussion to be led by Professor Barrett). The paper can be found online at: http://www.lps.uci.edu/barrett/papers.html

November 11: “The Problem of Absolute Universality”, by Charles Parsons, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 203–219.

November 18: “All Things Indefinitely Extensible”, by Stewart Shapiro & Crispin Wright, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 255 – 304.

November 25: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitroiu, et. al., New York: Bloomsbury USA 2009. ISBN 1596914521

December 2: “Unrestricted Unrestricted Quantification: The Cardinal Problem of Absolute Generality”, by Gabriel Uzquiano, in Rayo and Uzquiano 2006: 305 – 332.

December 9: “Absolute Identity and Absolute Generality” by Timothy Williamson, in Rayo & Uzquiano 2006: 369 – 390.

For more information, please contact Roy T. Cook or Janet McKernan.