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Article Dans Une Revue European Journal for Philosophy of Science Année : 2017

Michelangelo's Stone: an Argument against Platonism in Mathematics

Résumé

If there is a "platonic world" M of mathematical facts, what does M contain precisely? I observe that if M is too large, it is uninteresting, because the value is in the selection, not in the totality; if it is smaller and interesting, it is not independent from us. Both alternatives challenge mathematical platonism. I suggest that the universality of our mathematics may be a prejudice hiding its contingency, and illustrate contingent aspects of classical geometry, arithmetic and linear algebra.
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hal-01476561 , version 1 (20-04-2018)

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Carlo Rovelli. Michelangelo's Stone: an Argument against Platonism in Mathematics. European Journal for Philosophy of Science, 2017, 7 (2), pp.285-297. ⟨10.1007/s13194-016-0159-8⟩. ⟨hal-01476561⟩
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