Series: Penn State Logic Seminar

Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2000

Time: 2:30 - 3:20 PM

Place: 307 Boucke Building

Speaker: Emily Grosholz, Philosophy Department, Penn State

Title: The Irreducibility of Shape: Mathematical Intuition Reconsidered

Abstract:

Just as Dedekind could not reduce the line to a set of points without
assuming the availability of the line, so Descartes could not
construct curves from straight line segments without assuming the
availability of curves.  I will argue for the irreducibility and
canonicity of certain kinds of geometrical shape, and critically
examine the motives of philosophers who have tried to reduce it to
other things.