Speaker Series: Zeynep Soysal (University of Rochester) The Metalinguistic Construal of Mathematical Propositions

Title: The Metalinguistic Construal of Mathematical Propositions

Abstract: In this talk I will defend the metalinguistic solution to the problem of mathematical omniscience for the possible-worlds account of propositions. The metalinguistic solution says that mathematical propositions are possible-worlds propositions about the relation between mathematical sentences and what these sentences express. This solution faces two types of problems. First, it is thought to yield a highly counterintuitive account of mathematical propositions. Second, it still ascribes too much mathematical knowledge if we assume the standard possible-worlds account of belief and knowledge on which these are closed under entailment. I will defend the metalinguistic construal of mathematical propositions against these two types of objections by drawing upon a conventionalist metasemantics for mathematics and an algorithmic model of belief, knowledge, and communication.

Zeynep Soysal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Rochester. Soysal works primarily on foundational issues at the intersection of philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, metaphysics, and (social) epistemology. Soysal also has research interests in philosophical questions that concern journalism, social media, and technology, and in the philosophy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

DATE & TIME: October 18, 2024, 3:30PM-5:30PM

CONTACT NAME: Beth Grybko

EMAIL: bellena@philos.umass.edu