The reality of numbers: a physicalist's philosophy of mathematics

New York: Oxford University Press (1988)
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Abstract

Challenging the myth that mathematical objects can be defined into existence, Bigelow here employs Armstrong's metaphysical materialism to cast new light on mathematics. He identifies natural, real, and imaginary numbers and sets with specified physical properties and relations and, by so doing, draws mathematics back from its sterile, abstract exile into the midst of the physical world.

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John Bigelow
Monash University

Citations of this work

Naturalness.Cian Dorr & John Hawthorne - 2013 - In Karen Bennett & Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, Volume 8. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. pp. 1.
The Multi-location Trilemma.Damiano Costa & Claudio Calosi - 2022 - Erkenntnis 87 (3):1063-1079.
Truthmaking and difference-making.David Lewis - 2001 - Noûs 35 (4):602–615.

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