Digest Week 7 Michaelmas Term 2024
MT24, Week 7 (24th November-30th November)
If you have entries for the weekly Digest, please send information to admin@philosophy.ox.ac.uk by midday, Tuesday the week before the event.
Notices - other Philosophy events, including those taking place elsewhere in the university and beyond
Joseph Butler Society
Time: 8.30pm - 10.00pm
Location: Oriel College, Large Senior Common Room
Presenter: Professor Harriet Baber (University of San Diego)
Title: 'Perduring Personites and What Matters in Survival'
For further details, please go to: http://josephbutlersociety.weebly.com/
Truth Be Told: How to Interpret Past Mathematicians
A.C. Paseau and Fabian Pregel
(Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford)
Time: 5pm-6.30pm
Venue: Andrew Wiles Building: L5
Abstract: How should we interpret past mathematicians who may use the same vocabulary as us but with different meanings, or whose philosophical outlooks differ from ours? Errors aside, it is often assumed that past mathematicians largely made true claims—but what exactly justifies that assumption?
In this talk, we will explore these questions through general philosophical considerations and three case studies: 19th-century analysis, 18th-century geometry, and 19th-century matricial algebra. In each case, we encounter a significant challenge to supposing that the mathematicians in question made true claims. We will show how these challenges can be addressed and overcome.