O-Minimality and Diophantine Geometry


Book Description

This book brings the researcher up to date with recent applications of mathematical logic to number theory.




Towards a General Theory of Classifications


Book Description

This book is an essay on the epistemology of classifications. Its main purpose is not to provide an exposition of an actual mathematical theory of classifications, that is, a general theory which would be available to any kind of them: hierarchical or non-hierarchical, ordinary or fuzzy, overlapping or non-overlapping, finite or infinite, and so on, establishing a basis for all possible divisions of the real world. For the moment, such a theory remains nothing but a dream. Instead, the authors essentially put forward a number of key questions. Their aim is rather to reveal the “state of art” of this dynamic field and the philosophy one may eventually adopt to go further. To this end they present some advances made in the course of the last century, discuss a few tricky problems that remain to be solved, and show the avenues open to those who no longer wish to stay on the wrong track. Researchers and professionals interested in the epistemology and philosophy of science, library science, logic and set theory, order theory or cluster analysis will find this book a comprehensive, original and progressive introduction to the main questions in this field.




Philosophy and Model Theory


Book Description

Model theory is used in every theoretical branch of analytic philosophy: in philosophy of mathematics, in philosophy of science, in philosophy of language, in philosophical logic, and in metaphysics. But these wide-ranging uses of model theory have created a highly fragmented literature. On the one hand, many philosophically significant results are found only in mathematics textbooks: these are aimed squarely at mathematicians; they typically presuppose that the reader has a serious background in mathematics; and little clue is given as to their philosophical significance. On the other hand, the philosophical applications of these results are scattered across disconnected pockets of papers. The first aim of this book, then, is to explore the philosophical uses of model theory, focusing on the central topics of reference, realism, and doxology. Its second aim is to address important questions in the philosophy of model theory, such as: sameness of theories and structure, the boundaries of logic, and the classification of mathematical structures. Philosophy and Model Theory will be accessible to anyone who has completed an introductory logic course. It does not assume that readers have encountered model theory before, but starts right at the beginning, discussing philosophical issues that arise even with conceptually basic model theory. Moreover, the book is largely self-contained: model-theoretic notions are defined as and when they are needed for the philosophical discussion, and many of the most philosophically significant results are given accessible proofs.




Geometric Set Theory


Book Description

This book introduces a new research direction in set theory: the study of models of set theory with respect to their extensional overlap or disagreement. In Part I, the method is applied to isolate new distinctions between Borel equivalence relations. Part II contains applications to independence results in Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory without Axiom of Choice. The method makes it possible to classify in great detail various paradoxical objects obtained using the Axiom of Choice; the classifying criterion is a ZF-provable implication between the existence of such objects. The book considers a broad spectrum of objects from analysis, algebra, and combinatorics: ultrafilters, Hamel bases, transcendence bases, colorings of Borel graphs, discontinuous homomorphisms between Polish groups, and many more. The topic is nearly inexhaustible in its variety, and many directions invite further investigation.




Nonstandard Finite Difference Schemes: Methodology And Applications


Book Description

This second edition of Nonstandard Finite Difference Models of Differential Equations provides an update on the progress made in both the theory and application of the NSFD methodology during the past two and a half decades. In addition to discussing details related to the determination of the denominator functions and the nonlocal discrete representations of functions of dependent variables, we include many examples illustrating just how this should be done.Of real value to the reader is the inclusion of a chapter listing many exact difference schemes, and a chapter giving NSFD schemes from the research literature. The book emphasizes the critical roles played by the 'principle of dynamic consistency' and the use of sub-equations for the construction of valid NSFD discretizations of differential equations.




Simplicity: Ideals of Practice in Mathematics and the Arts


Book Description

To find "criteria of simplicity" was the goal of David Hilbert's recently discovered twenty-fourth problem on his renowned list of open problems given at the 1900 International Congress of Mathematicians in Paris. At the same time, simplicity and economy of means are powerful impulses in the creation of artworks. This was an inspiration for a conference, titled the same as this volume, that took place at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in April of 2013. This volume includes selected lectures presented at the conference, and additional contributions offering diverse perspectives from art and architecture, the philosophy and history of mathematics, and current mathematical practice.




Kant, Science, and Human Nature


Book Description

Robert Hanna argues for the importance of Kant's theories of the epistemological, metaphysical, and practical foundations of the 'exact sciences'--- relegated to the dustbin of the history of philosophy for most of the 20th century.Hanna's earlier book Kant and the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy (OUP 2001), explores basic conceptual and historical connections between Immanuel Kant's 18th-century Critical Philosophy and the tradition of mainstream analytic philosophy from Frege to Quine. The central topics of the analytic tradition in its early and middle periods were meaning and necessity. But the central theme of mainstream analytic philosophy after 1950 is scientific naturalism, which holds---to use WilfridSellars's apt phrase---that 'science is the measure of all things'. This type of naturalism is explicitly reductive. Kant, Science, and Human Nature has two aims, one negative and one positive. Its negative aim is to develop a Kantian critique of scientific naturalism. But its positive and more fundamentalaim is to work out the elements of a humane, realistic, and nonreductive Kantian account of the foundations of the exact sciences. According to this account, the essential properties of the natural world are directly knowable through human sense perception (empirical realism), and practical reason is both explanatorily and ontologically prior to theoretical reason (the primacy of the practical).




Model Theory and the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice


Book Description

Recounts the modern transformation of model theory and its effects on the philosophy of mathematics and mathematical practice.




Classification Theory


Book Description

In this research monograph, the author's work on classification and related topics are presented. This revised edition brings the book up to date with the addition of four new chapters as well as various corrections to the 1978 text.The additional chapters X - XIII present the solution to countable first order T of what the author sees as the main test of the theory. In Chapter X the Dimensional Order Property is introduced and it is shown to be a meaningful dividing line for superstable theories. In Chapter XI there is a proof of the decomposition theorems. Chapter XII is the crux of the matter: there is proof that the negation of the assumption used in Chapter XI implies that in models of T a relation can be defined which orders a large subset of m




Fundamentals of Stability Theory


Book Description

Since their inception, the Perspectives in Logic and Lecture Notes in Logic series have published seminal works by leading logicians. Many of the original books in the series have been unavailable for years, but they are now in print once again. In this volume, the twelfth publication in the Perspectives in Logic series, John T. Baldwin presents an introduction to first order stability theory, organized around the spectrum problem: calculate the number of models a first order theory T has in each uncountable cardinal. The author first lays the groundwork and then moves on to three sections: independence, dependence and prime models, and local dimension theory. The final section returns to the spectrum problem, presenting complete proofs of the Vaught conjecture for ω-stable theories for the first time in book form. The book provides much-needed examples, and emphasizes the connections between abstract stability theory and module theory.