Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xm8r8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-14T10:31:27.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Logicism Lite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Richard Jeffrey*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Princeton University
*
Send requests for reprints to the author, Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, Princeton NJ 08544-1006; dickjeff@Princeton.edu.

Abstract

Logicism Lite counts number-theoretical laws as logical for the same sort of reason for which physical laws are counted as as empirical: because of the character of the data they are responsible to. In the case of number theory these are the data verifying or falsifying the simplest equations, which Logicism Lite counts as true or false depending on the logical validity or invalidity of first-order argument forms in which no numbertheoretical notation appears.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This is a modification of Jeffrey (1996, 2002), prompted by work of Ferreira (1998–1999) and owing much to discussions with Penelope Maddy. The present data for truth or falsity of atomic sentences of number theory are modifications of Ferreira's “checking points”.

References

Bell John, David DeVidi, and Solomon, Graham (2001), Logical Options. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press.Google Scholar
Carnap, Rudolf ([1931] 1983), “The Logicist Foundations of Mathematics”, in Benacerraf, Paul and Putnam, Hilary (eds.), Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge: Prentice-Hall, translated by Erna Putnam and Gerald J. Massey. Originally published as “Die logizistische Grundlegung der Mathematik”, Erkenntnis 2:91105.Google Scholar
Ferreira, Fernando (1998–1999), “A Substitutional Framework for Arithmetical Validity”, A Substitutional Framework for Arithmetical Validity 56:133149.Google Scholar
Gödel, Kurt (1986), Collected Works, Vol. 1, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, Richard (1996), “Logicism 2000: A Mini-Manifesto”, in Morton, Adam and Stich, Stephen P. (eds.), Benacerraf and his Critics. Oxford: Blackwell, 160164.Google Scholar
Jeffrey, Richard (2002), “Depois do Empirismo Lógico/After Logical Empiricism”, in Zilhão, António (ed.), Petrus Hispanus Lectures 2000. Lisboa: Colibri.Google Scholar
Taylor, Richard, and Wiles, Andrew (1995), “Ring-theoretic properties of certain Hecke algebras”, Ring-theoretic properties of certain Hecke algebras 142:553572.Google Scholar
Wiles, Andrew (1995), “Modular elliptic curves and Fermat’s Last Theorem”, Modular elliptic curves and Fermat’s Last Theorem 142:443551.Google Scholar