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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.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Mathematical philosophy, logic and metaphysics • Formal semantics: compositionality, opacity, quotation, conditionals • Structuralism and realism (measurement, magnitudes, structural realism) • Existence, modality, laws of nature • Truth relativism • Philosophy of medicine: disease ontology • Arguments about God’s existenceThis podcast presents research talks and workshop sessions centered on “mathematical philosophy,” an approach that uses formal tools—logic, set theory, model theory, and related mathematical methods—to clarify philosophical assumptions and derive consequences with a level of precision akin to theoretical science. Across the episodes, speakers develop and critique formally articulated positions in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, often with close attention to how semantic and logical frameworks shape debates about ontology, modality, and realism.
A recurring theme is the relationship between formal systems and metaphysical commitment. Several discussions examine whether, and in what sense, logical principles and inferential patterns carry presuppositions about what exists, and how philosophers might avoid or manage commitment to abstract entities. Related work explores ontology through the lens of quantification and language, including analyses of apparent reference to non-existent objects and the ways natural-language quantifiers may target kinds rather than individuals.
Philosophy of language and formal semantics also figures prominently. The podcast treats classic Fregean issues about compositionality, the contrast between transparent and opaque contexts, and the role of intensions in possible-worlds semantics. It also engages with puzzles about quotation and reported speech, asking whether phenomena often treated as pragmatic can receive a compositional, referentially robust semantic analysis. Logical issues about conditionals, including alleged counterexamples to standard inference rules, are approached from a linguist’s semantic perspective, emphasizing the importance of careful formalization.
Metaphysical topics extend into modality, laws of nature, and structuralist views in mathematics and science. Episodes address whether modal truths can be grounded in dispositions, how to understand teleological-looking physical principles alongside equations of motion, and how dependence relations might distinguish varieties of mathematical structuralism. Realism is explored in multiple domains, including structural realism, inter-theoretical relations and “bridge building” between theories, and the interpretation of measurement—specifically whether objectivity about measurement entails realism about quantitative magnitudes. The range also includes applications to philosophy of medicine, where metaphysical questions about what diseases are intersect with classification and causation, and a German-language debate examining arguments for and against the existence of God using familiar lines of cosmological, teleological, and problem-of-evil reasoning.