MCMP – History of Philosophy artwork

MCMP – History of Philosophy

26 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 5 years ago -

Mathematical Philosophy - the application of logical and mathematical methods in philosophy - is about to experience a tremendous boom in various areas of philosophy. At the new Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, which is funded mostly by the German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, philosophical research will be carried out mathematically, that is, by means of methods that are very close to those used by the scientists.
The purpose of doing philosophy in this way is not to reduce philosophy to mathematics or to natural science in any sense; rather mathematics is applied in order to derive philosophical conclusions from philosophical assumptions, just as in physics mathematical methods are used to derive physical predictions from physical laws.
Nor is the idea of mathematical philosophy to dismiss any of the ancient questions of philosophy as irrelevant or senseless: although modern mathematical philosophy owes a lot to the heritage of the Vienna and Berlin Circles of Logical Empiricism, unlike the Logical Empiricists most mathematical philosophers today are driven by the same traditional questions about truth, knowledge, rationality, the nature of objects, morality, and the like, which were driving the classical philosophers, and no area of traditional philosophy is taken to be intrinsically misguided or confused anymore. It is just that some of the traditional questions of philosophy can be made much clearer and much more precise in logical-mathematical terms, for some of these questions answers can be given by means of mathematical proofs or models, and on this basis new and more concrete philosophical questions emerge. This may then lead to philosophical progress, and ultimately that is the goal of the Center.

Philosophy Society & Culture philosophy logic science language mathematics hannes leitgeb stephan hartmann mcmp lmu
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Episodes

Philosophische Scholastik. Der Streit der Schulen in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren

April 18, 2019 18:35 - 1 hour - 966 MB Video

Jürgen Mittelstraß gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Philosophische Scholastik. Der Streit der Schulen in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren".

Das Technische in der Philosophie. Logik und Mathematik in Stegmüllers Werk

April 18, 2019 18:19 - 28 minutes - 447 MB Video

Godehard Link gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Das Technische in der Philosophie. Logik und Mathematik in Stegmüllers Werk".

Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Einfachheit

April 18, 2019 18:16 - 26 minutes - 412 MB Video

Felix Mühlhölzer gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Einfachheit".

Einführung und Willkommen

April 18, 2019 18:14 - 24 minutes - 385 MB Video

Stephan Hartmann and Julian Nida-Rümelin open the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013).

Stegmüllers Wende zum "Non-Statement View"

April 18, 2019 18:12 - 35 minutes - 545 MB Video

C. Ulises Moulines gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Stegmüllers Wende zum "Non-Statement View"".

Einige persönliche Gedanken über vergangene Zeiten

April 18, 2019 18:12 - 31 minutes - 493 MB Video

Wolfgang Spohn gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Einige persönliche Gedanken über vergangene Zeiten".

Erklärung - Begründung - die Logik des "weil"

April 18, 2019 18:10 - 33 minutes - 519 MB Video

Hans Rott gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Erklärung - Begründung - die Logik des "weil"".

Wolfgang Stegmüllers Vorstellung von der Anwendung empirischer Theorien - und deren Probleme

April 18, 2019 18:09 - 31 minutes - 490 MB Video

Ulrich Gähde gives a talk at the Symposium "Wolfgang Stegmüller und die Rückkehr der analytischen Philosophie" (1 June, 2013) titled "Wolfgang Stegmüllers Vorstellung von der Anwendung empirischer Theorien - und deren Probleme".

Giuseppe Veronese: The Fascination of Infinity

May 12, 2015 05:18 - 1 hour - 1.03 GB Video

Paolo Busotti (San Marino in Storia della Scienza) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (7 May, 2015) titled "Giuseppe Veronese: The Fascination of Infinity". Abstract: Giuseppe Veronese (1854-1917) is one of the most interesting mathematicians lived between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. He gave important contributions to geometry, in particular he developed the non-Archimedean geometries and David Hilbert (1862-1943) mentioned some of Veronese’s results in his Gru...

Hilbert's metamathematics, finitist consistency proofs and the concept of infinity

February 18, 2014 02:17 - 1 hour - 1.12 GB Video

Matthias Schirn (LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (20 November, 2013) titled "Hilbert's metamathematics, finitist consistency proofs and the concept of infinity". Abstract: The main focus of my talk is on a critical analysis of some aspects of Hilbert’s proof-theoretic programme in the 1920s. During this period, Hilbert developed his metamathematics or proof theory to defend classical mathematics by carrying out, in a purely finitist fashion, consistency proofs for formalized mathemat...

Quasianalytic Individuation: Carnap's Aufbau as against Weylean Skepticism

October 21, 2013 08:38 - 36 minutes - 559 MB Video

Iulian Toader (Bucharest) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Quasianalytic Individuation: Carnap's Aufbau as against Weylean Skepticism". Abstract: Carnap maintained that, unlike mathematics, the empirical sciences must individuate their ob- jects, and that they can (and should) do so via univocal systems of structural definite descriptions. In this paper, I evaluate Carnap's strategies for univocality, against the Southwest German neo-Kantia...

The Old Husserl and the Young Carnap

October 21, 2013 08:38 - 1 hour - 1.01 GB Video

Guillermo E. Rosado Haddock (Puerto Rico) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "The Old Husserl and the Young Carnap". Abstract: In his ‘Intellectual Autobiography’ Carnap barely refers to Husserl and not once with reference to his own work. He mentions Kant and a pair of Neo-Kantians as the main philosophical influences in Der Raum, and Mach, Rusell and the Gestalt psychologists as main influences in Der logische Aufbau der Welt. Moreover, he s...

The Context and Development of Carnap's Views on Logic up to the Aufbau

October 21, 2013 08:38 - 51 minutes - 792 MB Video

Clinton Tolley (San Diego) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "The Context and Development of Carnap's Views on Logic up to the Aufbau". Abstract: I will identify key components of Carnap's early conception of logic, as it develops in the period leading up to the Aufbau, looking especially at Der Raum and also Abriss der Logistik. I will also situate the development of Carnap's views within the context of the main influences upon his thinking ...

Rudolf Carnap and Wilhelm Ostwald

October 21, 2013 08:37 - 56 minutes - 869 MB Video

Hans-Joachim Dahms (Vienna) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Rudolf Carnap and Wilhelm Ostwald". Abstract: When Rudolf Carnap started work on his dissertation Der Raum in Summer 1920 he also hosted a conference with some of his Jena friends in his Buchenbach home about „a system of the sciences“. Carnap proposed as starting point for that discussion a scheme and ideas developed by Wilhelm Ostwald (1853-1932), the nobel-price winning chemist...

Carnap and Phenomenology: What Happened in 1924?

October 21, 2013 08:37 - 56 minutes - 854 MB Video

Andre Carus (Hegeler Institute) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Carnap and Phenomenology: What Happened in 1924?". Abstract: The sketch of the Aufbau system in "Vom Chaos zur Wirklichkeit" (1922) employs phenome- nology to describe the system basis, as do other writings before 1924. But in January 1925, we find a new principle of " ̈Überwindung der Subjektivität" and a new emphasis on "Einheit des Gegenstands- bereichs." Russell's "constr...

Gätschenberger on the "Given" and Carnap's Aufbau

October 21, 2013 08:34 - 25 minutes - 391 MB Video

Elena Tatievskaya (Augsburg) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Gätschenberger on the "Given" and Carnap's Aufbau". Abstract: In his Aufbau Carnap rejects Gätschenberger’s (1920) statement that the pure language of the “given” is impossible. Gätschenberger who represents cognition as ordering reality by means of symbolizing holds an experience (“Erlebnis”) to be a natural symbol which posits some object identifiable on the basis of the effect...

(Re)constructing Influences in the Aufbau

October 21, 2013 08:34 - 59 minutes - 906 MB Video

Thomas Mormann (San Sebastian) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "(Re)constructing Influences in the Aufbau". Abstract: Once upon a time, the Aufbau was succinctly described as an attempt “to account for the external world as a logical construct of sense-data... .” Consequently, the most important influence on the Aufbau could be precisely named as “Russell”. These idyllic times have long passed. A comprehensive interpretation of the Aufbau h...

Influences on Carnap's Structuralism in the Aufbau

October 21, 2013 08:33 - 13 minutes - 206 MB Video

Thomas Meier (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Influences on Carnap's Structuralism in the Aufbau". Abstract: I present an analysis of the different influences on Carnap’s structuralism in the Aufbau. First, I show how Hilbert’s notion of implicit definition from his axiomatization of Euclidean geometry (Hilbert, 1899) had an influence on Carnap’s development of his notion of purely structural description. As one further point, I ...

The Aufbau and the Early Schlick

October 20, 2013 10:34 - 42 minutes - 662 MB Video

Matthias Neuber (Tuebingen) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "The Aufbau and the Early Schlick". Abstract: Schlick’s influence on Carnap’s Aufbau will be considered under the aspect of Schlick’s early ‘critical realism.’ It will be shown that both Carnap’s structuralism and his distinction between the ‘met- aphysical’ and the ‘empirical’ conception of reality can be traced back to Schlick’s discussion of the real- ism issue in his early Allg...

Theories of Order in Carnap's Aufbau

October 20, 2013 10:33 - 59 minutes - 896 MB Video

Paul Ziche (Utrecht) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Theories of Order in Carnap's Aufbau". Abstract: "Order" is a key term in debates in, and between, fields such as logic, philosophy of mathemat- ics, theoretical biology and philosophy of science around 1900. In § 3 of the "Aufbau", Carnap refers af- firmatively to a number of relevant authors: Whitehead and Russell, Driesch, Ostwald, Husserl, and many more. This list already indicates h...

Neurath's Influence on Carnap's Aufbau

October 20, 2013 10:33 - 56 minutes - 863 MB Video

Thomas Uebel (Manchester) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Neurath's Influence on Carnap's Aufbau". Abstract: In his very prompt review of Carnap’s Aufbau, Neurath was both highly appreciative of Car- nap’s achievements there and but also critical of some of its features. Neurath, of course, is reported to have been one of the readers of the typescript of an earlier version of that book that circulated amongst members of Schlick’s discussio...

Carnap and Wiener: a missed opportunity?

October 20, 2013 10:30 - 36 minutes - 549 MB Video

Sébastien Gandon (Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "Carnap and Wiener: a missed opportunity?". Abstract: In 1913, Norbert Wiener, then a young (19 years old) prodigy, went in Cambridge to work with Russell. Wiener was very impressed by Russell’s constructionalist program, and, from 1914 to 1922, he published four papers (one is more than 100 pages long) extending Russell’s project. My talk’s first aim is to p...

The Notion of Objectivity in 19th Century German Philosophy and its Role for the Aufbau

October 20, 2013 10:30 - 34 minutes - 529 MB Video

Christian Damböck (Vienna) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "The Notion of Objectivity in 19th Century German Philosophy and its Role for the Aufbau". Abstract: This paper compares Carnap’s empiricist and objectivist conception from the Aufbau with a certain family of accounts of the empirical and objectivity that had been emerged in 19th Century Ger- many. Although these accounts were marginalized at the beginning of the 20th Century there ...

What Carnap might have learned from Weyl

October 20, 2013 10:29 - 47 minutes - 718 MB Video

Thomas Ryckman (Stanford) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "What Carnap might have learned from Weyl". Abstract: There are easily discernible traces of the influence of Hermann Weyl in the writings of Carnap in the early to mid- 1920s. It is somewhat more difficult to find any palpable influence of Weyl in the Aufbau. On the other hand, Weyl’s 1926 Philosophie der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften is the sole work singled out in Aufbau's Bi...

The Mathematical Core of the External World Problem: Carnap's Construction of the External World and Karl Gerhards's 'Der mathematische Kern der Aussenweltshypothese'

October 20, 2013 10:28 - 54 minutes - 842 MB Video

Alan Richardson (UBC Vancouver) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "The Mathematical Core of the External World Problem: Carnap's Construction of the External World and Karl Gerhards's 'Der mathematische Kern der Aussenweltshypothese'". Abstract: Carnap, in his "Intellectual Autobiography," tells the story of reading in 1921 Bertrand Russell's book, Our Knowledge of the External World. In this anecdote he calls Russell "the strongest influence...

From Intuition to Tolerance in Carnap's Philosophy of Mathematics

October 19, 2013 15:10 - 1 hour - 935 MB Video

Michael Friedman (Stanford) gives a talk at the MCMP workshop "Influences on the Aufbau" (1-3 July, 2013) titled "From Intuition to Tolerance in Carnap's Philosophy of Mathematics". Abstract: I plan to discuss the evolution of Carnap's views on arithmetic and geometry from Der Raum, through the Aufbau period, to Logical Syntax and the semantic period. I will concentrate on the way in which he consistently distinguished the two cases -- where geometry, in Der Raum, is explicitly tied to spatia...