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Articles

What is the Philosophy of Mathematics?

Stephen Ferguson asks whether mathematical objects are real.

I work on the philosophy of mathematics – in fact, I’m just finishing off my PhD dissertation. When I meet people and they ask what I do, they always look puzzled by my reply. Typical responses include surprise that mathematics has a philosophy, complete bewilderment, or else they conclude that I must do some form of esoteric mathematics and confess that they could never get their head round maths when they were at school. The situation is usually slightly better when I meet other philosophers – they know that it has something to do with Bertrand Russell; sometimes they will mention Wittgenstein or even Frege or Gödel. But no-one ever seems to be able to put their finger on just what it is that I do.

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