The logic seminar will meet as usual this Thursday from 4 to 5.30pm in the Graduate Common Room. Thomas Schindler will be talking on “A deflationary account of classes". University members welcome. Abstract below.
Michael Potter Title: A deflationary account of classes Abstract: Charles Parsons (1974) claims that the introduction of the notion of class answers to a need to generalise on predicate places. Similarly, the notion of truth answers to a need to generalise on sentence places. Deflationism about truth is the view that truth is no more than that. This suggests that we should also consider deflationism about classes. I'll start by introducing a version of deflationism about truth that I take to be an improvement over traditional deflationism a la Horwich. Then I'll sketch an analogous deflationary account of classes. This account might have some interesting consequences for the philosophy of language and mathematics. In the last part of the talk, I'll present some axioms for a deflationary class theory in which a substantial portion of mathematics can be reconstructed. I'll keep technicalities to a minimum. _____________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the CamPhilEvents mailing list, or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents List archive: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEventsArchive Please note that CamPhilEvents doesn't accept email attachments. See the list information page for further details and suggested alternatives.
