Mathematical platonism and the causal relevance of abstracta

Synthese 200 (6):1-18 (2022)
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Abstract

Many mathematicians are platonists: they believe that the axioms of mathematics are true because they express the structure of a nonspatiotemporal, mind independent, realm. But platonism is plagued by a philosophical worry: it is unclear how we could have knowledge of an abstract, realm, unclear how nonspatiotemporal objects could causally affect our spatiotemporal cognitive faculties. Here I aim to make room in our metaphysical picture of the world for the causal relevance of abstracta.

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10.1007/s11229-022-03962-x

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Barbara Gail Montero
CUNY Graduate Center

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References found in this work

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