RECONCILING NOMINALISM AND PLATONISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS
Department of Philosophy, Columbia University
April 22–23, 2016
FRIDAY APRIL 22 (Philosophy Hall, Room 716)
14:00–14:15
Achille Varzi (Columbia University), Marco Panza (IHPST)
Welcome and Introduction
14:15-15:45
John Burgess (Princeton University)
Reconciling Anti-Nominalism and Anti-Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics
15:45–16:00 Break
16:00-17:30
Haim Gaifman (Columbia University)
Reconfiguring the Problem: “Platonism” as Objective, Evidence-transcendent Truth
17:30-19:00
Sébastien Gandon (Université Blaise Pascal)
Describing What One is Doing. A Philosophy of Action Based View of Mathematical Objectivity
SATURDAY, APRIL 23 (Philosophy Hall, Room 716)
9:30–11:00
Mirna Džamonja (University of East Anglia and IHPST)
An Unreasonable Effectiveness of ZFC Set Theory at the Singular Cardinals
11:00–11:30 Break
11:30–13:00
Hartry Field (New York University)
Platonism, Indispensability, Conventionalism
13:00–15:00 Lunch
15:00-16:30
Justin Clarke-Doane (Columbia University)
The Benacerraf Problem in Broader Perspective
16:30–17:00 Break
17:00-18:30
Michele Friend (George Washington University)
Is the Pluralist Reconciliation between Nominalism and Platonism too Easy?
18:30 Conclusions
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Metro Area Philosophy of Science Presents:
Elizabeth Miller (Yale),
Title: TBA.
Jonathan Bain (NYU)
What Explains the Spin-Statistics Connection?
The spin-statistics connection plays an essential role in explanations of non-relativistic phenomena associated with both field-theoretic and non-field-theoretic systems (for instance, it explains the electronic structure of solids and the behavior of Einstein-Bose condensates and superconductors). However, it is only derivable within the context of relativistic quantum field theory (RQFT) in the form of the Spin-Statistics Theorem; and moreover, there are multiple, mutually incompatible ways of deriving it. This essay attempts to determine the sense in which the spin-statistics connection can be said to be an essential property in RQFT, and how it is that an essential property of one type of theory can figure into fundamental explanations offered by other, inherently distinct theories.
David Kishik (Emerson College), Dr Zed Adams (New School for Social Research)
Walter Benjamin’s Arcades Project, Joe Gould’s Oral History of Our Time, and Joseph Mitchell’s memoir each existed more in their respective author’s imagination than on the written page. In this Friday evening event, David Kishik will discuss the significance of such imaginary literary works for his own Manhattan Project (Stanford, 2015), which draws upon Benjamin, Gould, Mitchell, and others to develop a theory of Manahattan as the capital of the twentieth century. At the event, Kishik will be introduced and interviewed by New School faculty member Zed Adams.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa
Souleymane Bachir Diagne, in discussion with Gary Wilder and Mamadou Diouf
To RSVP, please click here.
*Please note that this event will take place in Common Room, Heyman Center, on Columbia’s East Campus. For a map, please click here.
Souleymane Bachir Diagne talks about his book, The Ink of the Scholars: Reflections on Philosophy in Africa, recently translated into English, in a panel discussion with Gary Wilder and Mamadou Diouf.
Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a Professor of Philosophy and French and the Chair of the Department of French at Columbia University. His areas of expertise include history of logic, history of philosophy, Islamic philosophy, and African philosophy and literature. Mamadou Diouf is a Professor of History and African Studies at Columbia. Gary Wilder is Associate Professor of Anthropology at CUNY.
This event is co-sponsored by the Heyman Center for the Humanities and the Maison Française.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.
Free and open to the public | ID required
Burning Issues in African Philosophy builds off of the sophisticated work that has now become part of an international conversation on how African philosophy makes unique interventions into almost every important question of politics, ethics, aesthetics, ontology and epistemology. Indeed, the very definition of these fundamental philosophical conceptions is both challenged and enriched. In this way, African philosophy is not only crucial in understanding what constitutes its uniqueness but also in providing us with new and innovative ways to think about some of the most burning issues of our time as far reaching as what is the meaning of being human to how we can effectively challenge climate change. The aim of this seminar then is not simply to bring some of the most important African philosophers to participate so that their work can be known, but perhaps more importantly that they can bring African philosophy into the political and ethical debates about what it might mean to have a more just future. The series begins by challenging the conventional Afro-pessimistic view of time as being unable to organize a future perspective that would allow for adequate industrialization and development. If time is what happens inseparable from events, this does not mean that there is no future in African philosophy. What it means is that there is no future that can be foreclosed or known in advance and thus possibilities for the future remain open. It is therefore up to our actions to bring about the future that we want.
All Seminars are held on Wednesday evening (7-9PM) in the Heyman Common Room.
Wednesday September 28, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Discussant: Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday November 2, 2016, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Michael Monahan, Marquette University
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University and Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday January 25, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nkiru Nzegwu, SUNY-Binghampton
Discussant: Doug Ficek, University of New Haven
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday February 22, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Olufemi Taiwo, Cornell University
Discussant: Jane Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Location: Heyman Common Room
Wednesday March 8, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Univeriste Paris 8
Discussant: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Location: 208 Knox Hall
Wednesday April 19, 2017, 7:00 pm-9:00 pm
Presenter: Lewis Gordon, University of Connecticut-Storrs
Discussants: Max Hantel, Dartmouth College and Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University
Location: Heyman Common Room
This series is made possible by financial support from the Provost Office and Arts & Sciences at Columbia University and the Partnership University Fund (PUF) of the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE). The venue for this series is provided by the Heyman Center for Humanities.