MCMP
66 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 6 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsMathematical 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.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Physics without Experiments?
March 13, 2018 12:06 - 27 minutes - 411 MB VideoRadin Dardashti (MCMP/LMU) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Physics without Experiments?". Abstract: Most of the fundamental theories in modern physics are relevant at energy scales or length scales where empirical access is currently hard to obtain. Accounts of theory assessment within the philosophy of science literature are, however, usually concerned with the relation between the theory and the empirical data they predict. So these “tradit...
Scientific Speculation
March 13, 2018 12:06 - 25 minutes - 380 MB VideoPeter Achinstein (Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Scientific Speculation". Abstract: Throughout the history of science controversies have emerged regarding the legitimacy of speculating in science. Three very strong views about the general practice of speculating have emerged: One, very conservative, says “never do it, or at least never publish it.” It is the official doctrine of Isaac Newton: “hypotheses have n...
Non-empirical Confirmation: Just a Cover-Up for the Failures of String Theory?
March 13, 2018 12:02 - 24 minutes - 361 MB VideoCarlo Rovelli (Univ. of Aix Marseilles) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Non-empirical Confirmation: Just a Cover-Up for the Failures of String Theory?". Abstract: Fundamental physics has changed from a field capable of spectacular successful predictions (electromagnetic waves, black holes, antiparticles, just to name a few...) to a depressing sequence of failed predictions: low-energy supersymmetry being the most recent and burning. Why? I wi...
String/M-Theories about our World are Testable in the Traditional Physics Way
March 13, 2018 12:01 - 45 minutes - 161 MB VideoGordon Kane (Univ. of Michigan/Ann Arbour) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "String/M-Theories about our World are Testable in the Traditional Physics Way". Abstract: Some physicists hope to use string/M-theory to try to construct a comprehensive underlying theory of our physical world – a final theory. A quantum theory of gravity must be formulated in 10 dimensions, so obviously testing it requires projecting it onto our 4D world (called “comp...
Achievements and Challenges for String Phenomenology/Cosmology
March 13, 2018 12:00 - 43 minutes - 80.4 MB VideoFernando Quevedo (Univ. of Cambridge/ ICTP Trieste) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Achievements and Challenges for String Phenomenology/Cosmology". Abstract: An overview is given on the efforts for string theorists to make contact with low-energy physics and cosmological observations. The main challenges for the future will be addressed.
Is the Quantum Origin of Galaxies Falsifiable?
March 13, 2018 11:59 - 36 minutes - 26.5 MB VideoViatcheslav Mukhanov (LMU) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Is the Quantum Origin of Galaxies Falsifiable?".
Dark Gravity, Dark Fluids, and Dark Statistics
March 13, 2018 11:58 - 43 minutes - 40.4 MB VideoBjörn Malte Schäfer (Heidelberg) gives a talk at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015) titled "Dark Gravity, Dark Fluids, and Dark Statistics". Abstract: Observational cosmology has the purpose of investigating gravity on large scales through the observation of the expansion dynamics of the Universe on one side and through cosmic structure formation on the other. In my talk I will go through the arguments why these observations are able to constrain models of gravity, wha...
Opening Words
March 13, 2018 11:56 - 5 minutes - 85.4 MB VideoOpening Words by Richard Dawid (MCMP/LMU), Stephan Hartmann (MCMP/LMU) and Dieter Lüst (LMU) at the Workshop on "Why trust a Theory?" (7-9 December, 2015).
A Deflationary Account of Classes
June 13, 2016 09:32 - 16 minutes - 252 MB VideoThomas Schindler (University of Cambridge/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "A Deflationary Account of Classes". Abstract: Charles Parsons claims that the introduction of the notion of class answers to a need to generalise on predicate places. Similarly, the notion of truth answers to a need to generalise on sentence places. Deflationism about truth is the view that truth is no more than that. This suggests that ...
Formal Methods in the Study of Truth
June 13, 2016 09:03 - 19 minutes - 292 MB VideoLavinia Picollo (LMU/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Formal Methods in the Study of Truth". Abstract: The nature of truth has been an issue in philosophy since ancient times. Several theories have been proposed, the most popular of which is correspondentism, the idea that truth bearers are true as long as they correspond to certain chunks of reality. At the beginning of the XX century a rival theory emerged: d...
Towards an Adequate Criterion of Structural Equivalence of Theories
June 13, 2016 08:32 - 19 minutes - 300 MB VideoLaurenz Hudetz (University of Salzburg) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Towards an Adequate Criterion of Structural Equivalence of Theories". Abstract: My aim in this talk is to provide a general and adequate explication of structural equivalence of scientific theories. I will first give a brief overview of the recent debate about criteria for structural equivalence and highlight the main problems of the criteria pr...
Self-Referential Probability
June 13, 2016 08:32 - 20 minutes - 313 MB VideoCatrin Campbell-Moore (University of Cambridge/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Self-Referential Probability". Abstract: In this talk we consider situations where what someone believes can affect what happens, for example: Bettie will be able to jump across a river just if she's confident that she'll be able to do so. These situations can cause problems in formal epistemology: what beliefs are rational for such...
A Math-Philosophical Approach to Deontic Concepts
June 10, 2016 06:30 - 19 minutes - 294 MB VideoIlaria Canavotto (LMU/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "A Math-Philosophical Approach to Deontic Concepts". Abstract: The aim of this talk is to present relevant open lines of research in deontic logic, especially in deontic logic of actions (ought-to-do logic), so as to provide evidence of the potential that mathematical philosophy has in the analysis of prescriptive concepts. I will do this by first making exp...
Open Reading for Free Choice Permission: A Perspective in Substructural Logics
June 10, 2016 06:29 - 20 minutes - 316 MB VideoHuimin Dong (University of Bayreuth) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "Open Reading for Free Choice Permission: A Perspective in Substructural Logics". Abstract:
How Bayesianism Adresses the Problem(s) of Induction
June 10, 2016 06:29 - 18 minutes - 287 MB VideoChloé de Canson (University of Cambridge) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "How Bayesianism Addresses the Problem(s) of Induction". Abstract: The paper seeks to argue that Bayesian Confirmation Theory is the right kind of theory to account for confirmation. More precisely, a thorough (non-Bayesian) analysis of the paradox of the raven is used to show that (i) propositions play the role of evidence; (ii) there are two ...
What is Truth-Maker Semantics?
June 10, 2016 06:29 - 19 minutes - 300 MB VideoJohannes Korbmacher (LMU/MCMP) gives a talk at the Workshop on Five Years MCMP: Quo Vadis, Mathematical Philosophy? (2-4 June, 2016) titled "What is Truth-Maker Semantics?". Abstract: The aim of this short programmatic talk is to try to clear up some fundamental concepts of truthmaker semantics. Among the questions that will be addressed are: What is special about truthmaker semantics? What is the concept of truthmaking in truthmaker semantics? What is the concept of truthmakers in truthmaker...