Structuralism without structures

Philosophia Mathematica 4 (2):100-123 (1996)
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Abstract

Recent technical developments in the logic of nominalism make it possible to improve and extend significantly the approach to mathematics developed in Mathematics without Numbers. After reviewing the intuitive ideas behind structuralism in general, the modal-structuralist approach as potentially class-free is contrasted broadly with other leading approaches. The machinery of nominalistic ordered pairing (Burgess-Hazen-Lewis) and plural quantification (Boolos) can then be utilized to extend the core systems of modal-structural arithmetic and analysis respectively to full, classical, polyadic third- and fourthorder number theory. The mathenatics of many structures of central importance in functional analysis, measure theory, and topology can be recovered within essentially these frameworks.

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Geoffrey Hellman
University of Minnesota

Citations of this work

In defense of Countabilism.David Builes & Jessica M. Wilson - 2022 - Philosophical Studies 179 (7):2199-2236.
Plural quantification.Ø Linnebo - 2008 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Plural quantification exposed.Øystein Linnebo - 2003 - Noûs 37 (1):71–92.
Three varieties of mathematical structuralism.Geoffrey Hellman - 2001 - Philosophia Mathematica 9 (2):184-211.

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References found in this work

Science Without Numbers: A Defence of Nominalism.Hartry H. Field - 1980 - Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
Parts of Classes.David K. Lewis - 1991 - Mind 100 (3):394-397.
Nominalist platonism.George Boolos - 1985 - Philosophical Review 94 (3):327-344.

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