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A Platonist epistemology

Mark Balaguer

pp. 303-325

Abstract

A response is given here to Benacerraf's 1973 argument that mathematical platonism is incompatible with a naturalistic epistemology. Unlike almost all previous platonist responses to Benacerraf, the response given here is positive rather than negative; that is, rather than trying to find a problem with Benacerraf's argument, I accept his challenge and meet it head on by constructing an epistemology of abstract (i.e., aspatial and atemporal) mathematical objects. Thus, I show that spatio-temporal creatures like ourselves can attain knowledge about mathematical objects by simply explaininghow they can do this. My argument is based upon the adoption of a particular version of platonism — full-blooded platonism — which asserts that any mathematical object which possiblycould exist actuallydoes exist.

Publication details

Published in:

(1995) Synthese 103 (3).

Pages: 303-325

DOI: 10.1007/BF01089731

Full citation:

Balaguer Mark (1995) „A Platonist epistemology“. Synthese 103 (3), 303–325.