Edward Zalta (Stanford) - Inaugural Lecture - 2025 Johann-von-Spix Guestprofessor at the University of Bamberg
Title: Where Mathematics, Metaphysics, Logic, and Computer Science Meet
Speaker:
Edward N. Zalta (2025 Johan von Spix Visiting Professor)
Senior Research Scholar
Stanford University
https://mally.stanford.edu/zalta.html
Thursday, May 22, 2025, 16:00 - 18:00 Uhr; Room: U2/00.25
Abstract: When a mathematician asserts "π > 3" or "the set of natural numbers is infinite", what do the symbols "π", "3", and ">" mean, and what are we referring to with the expressions "the set of natural numbers" and "is infinite"? Of course, the mathematician may simply assume that the expressions "π", "3", "the set of natural numbers" signify mathematical objects, that "is infinite" signifies a property of numbers and sets, and that "<" signifies a relation on numbers. But numbers, sets, properties, and relations are abstract entities and it is not clear how to answer the question "In what sense do these entities exist?", since we can't use (the instruments of) the natural sciences to detect or study such entities. Instead, metaphysics, which attempts to systematize, and state the laws governing, the abstract entities presupposed by the natural sciences, is the
discipline where this question, and related questions, are studied. But to do metaphysics precisely, we need to deploy the techniques of both logic and computer science. In this talk, I explain how collaboration between researchers at Stanford and Bamberg have developed a metaphysical analysis of the realm of mathematical entities that uses both logical and computational techniques to (a) explain what it is we understand by the symbols and expressions used in mathematics and thereby (b) integrate the 4 key disciplines mentioned in the title.