Open texture and mathematics

DOI10.1215/00294527-2021-0007MaRDI QIDQ1982002zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Stewart Shapiro, Craige Roberts

Publication date 7 September 2021

Published in Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1215/00294527-2021-0007

zbMATH Keywords

Lakatosopen textureWaismann

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Philosophy of mathematics (00A30) Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations (03A05)

Review text

According to Friedrich Waismann a predicate \(P\), from a natural language, exhibits open texture if it is possible for there to be an object \(a\) such that nothing concerning the established use of \(P\), and nothing concerning the nonlinguistic facts, determines that \(P\) holds of \(a\), nor does anything determine that \(P\) fails to hold of \(a\). If \(P\) is open-textured, then the truth of the sentence, or proposition expressed by \(Pa\) is left open by the use of the language and the nonlinguistic facts. The purpose of the paper under review is to explore the extent to which mathematics is subject to open texture and the extent to which mathematics resists open texture. The resistance is tied to the importance of proof and, in particular, rigor, in mathematics.

Recommendations

• The concept of ‘rigorous proof’
• Informal proofs and mathematical rigour
• Reshaping the metaphor of proof
• The objectivity of mathematics
• The importance of definitions in mathematics

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Cited in

(2)

• Indeterminacy, coincidence, and ``sourcing newness in mathematical research
• Arealism, thin realism, and the problem of extrinsic evidence

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