Three varieties of mathematical structuralism

DOI10.1093/PHILMAT/9.2.184MaRDI QIDQ2765252zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Geoffrey Hellman

Publication date 11 September 2003

Published in Philosophia Mathematica. Series III (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1093/philmat/9.2.184

zbMATH Keywords

modalityphilosophy of mathematicsstructuralism

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

Review text

This paper compares three varieties of structuralism that have come to the fore in recent philosophy of mathematics. These are (i) set-theoretic structuralism (STS), which defines mathematical structures in familiar model-theoretic ways, (ii) the `sui generis' structuralism (SGS) of \textit{Stewart Shapiro} (as in his book: Philosophy of mathematics: structure and ontology. New York: Oxf. Univ. Press (1997; Zbl 0897.00004)), which considers structures to be a special kind of object implicitly defined in a second-order theory, and (iii) the author's own modal-structuralism (MS) (as in his: Mathematics without numbers. Oxford: Clarendon Press (1989; Zbl 0688.03001)), which avoids literal quantification over structures, and instead appeals to the second-order logical possibility of a domain and its relations. The author argues that while all three agree about ordinary mathematics, they diverge with regard to some extraordinary mathematics. He presents a number of problems that STS faces but SGS and MS avoid, and then some other problems that SGS faces that MS avoids. To the charge that the modal primitives of MS are themselves problematic, the author replies that both STS and SGS are implicitly committed to similar sorts of modality.

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Cited in

(13)

• Toward a modal-structural interpretation of set theory
• Univalent foundations as structuralist foundations
• What we talk about when we talk about numbers
• Circular discernment in completely extensive structures and how to avoid such circles generally
• Curry's formalism as structuralism
• Ontological dependence and grounding for a weak mathematical structuralism
• The structuralist mathematical style: Bourbaki as a case study
• A silly answer to a Psillos question
• An ``\(i\) for an \(i\): singular terms, uniqueness, and reference
• Three Doctrines of the Nature of Mathematics (Some Comments of a Knowledge Theorist)
• Mathematical structuralism
• Über drei Erscheinungen von Unterschied in der Mathematik
• Non-eliminative structuralism, Fregean abstraction, and non-rigid structures

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