Mary Leng
Biographic Data
| ID | 5966420 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mary Leng |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mary |
| FAMILY NAME | Leng |
| SIGNATURE | LENG M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of York |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9936-5453 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Amelioration, inclusion, and legal recognition
Philosophers engaged in projects of 'ameliorative inquiry' offer accounts of social categories, such as those of race and gender, that set aside the descriptive question of understanding those categories as they currently exist in favour of developing accounts of how we ought to think of those categories given our political goals. For feminists whose goal is to combat gender injustice, the dictionary definition of 'woman' as 'adult human female' …
Inseparable Bedfellows
In this paper we explore the hypothesis that constrained uses of imagination are crucial to economic modeling. We propose a theoretical framework to develop this thesis through a number of specific hypotheses that we test and refine through six new, representative case studies. Our ultimate goal is to develop a philosophical account that is practice oriented and informed by empirical evidence. To do this, we deploy an abductive reasoning strategy…
Models, structures, and the explanatory role of mathematics in empirical science
Are there genuine mathematical explanations of physical phenomena, and if so, how can mathematical theories, which are typically thought to concern abstract mathematical objects, explain contingent empirical matters? The answer, I argue, is in seeing an important range of mathematical explanations as structural explanations , where structural explanations explain a phenomenon by showing it to have been an inevitable consequence of the structural …
Critical Review of Penelope Maddy, Defending the Axioms
Penelope Maddy's 2011 book, Defending the Axioms, argues that there may be an objectively correct answer to the question whether there are sets whose cardinality is strictly less than the real numbers, but strictly greater than the natural numbers, but that there is no objectively correct answer to the question of whether there are sets. This review examines Maddy's reasons for these claims, and agrees with her that, once the position she calls ‘…
Truth through Proof
Truth through Proof aims, according to its subtitle, to provide ‘A Formalist Foundation for Mathematics’. By this, Weir means a metaphysical rather than epistemic or technical foundation, i.e., ‘a general explanation of what makes-true mathematical utterances’ (p. 241). In his view, which he presents as a revival of a pre-Hilbertian game formalism, mathematical utterances are made true by the existence of proofs, by which he means, actual concret…
Mathematics and Reality
Mary Leng defends a philosophical account of the nature of mathematics which views it as a kind of fiction (albeit an extremely useful fiction).
Mathematical Knowledge
Solving the Unsolvable
Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth
What's Wrong With Indispensability
What's Wrong With Indispensability
Models, structures, and the explanatory role of mathematics in empirical science
Are there genuine mathematical explanations of physical phenomena, and if so, how can mathematical theories, which are typically thought to concern abstract mathematical objects, explain contingent empirical matters? The answer, I argue, is in seeing an important range of mathematical explanations as structural explanations , where structural explanations explain a phenomenon by showing it to have been an inevitable consequence of the structural …
Amelioration, inclusion, and legal recognition
Philosophers engaged in projects of 'ameliorative inquiry' offer accounts of social categories, such as those of race and gender, that set aside the descriptive question of understanding those categories as they currently exist in favour of developing accounts of how we ought to think of those categories given our political goals. For feminists whose goal is to combat gender injustice, the dictionary definition of 'woman' as 'adult human female' …
What's Wrong With Indispensability
Looking the Gift Horse in the Mouth
Solving the Unsolvable
Mathematical Knowledge
Mathematics and Reality
Mary Leng defends a philosophical account of the nature of mathematics which views it as a kind of fiction (albeit an extremely useful fiction).
Truth through Proof
Truth through Proof aims, according to its subtitle, to provide ‘A Formalist Foundation for Mathematics’. By this, Weir means a metaphysical rather than epistemic or technical foundation, i.e., ‘a general explanation of what makes-true mathematical utterances’ (p. 241). In his view, which he presents as a revival of a pre-Hilbertian game formalism, mathematical utterances are made true by the existence of proofs, by which he means, actual concret…
Critical Review of Penelope Maddy, Defending the Axioms
Penelope Maddy's 2011 book, Defending the Axioms, argues that there may be an objectively correct answer to the question whether there are sets whose cardinality is strictly less than the real numbers, but strictly greater than the natural numbers, but that there is no objectively correct answer to the question of whether there are sets. This review examines Maddy's reasons for these claims, and agrees with her that, once the position she calls ‘…
Models, structures, and the explanatory role of mathematics in empirical science
Are there genuine mathematical explanations of physical phenomena, and if so, how can mathematical theories, which are typically thought to concern abstract mathematical objects, explain contingent empirical matters? The answer, I argue, is in seeing an important range of mathematical explanations as structural explanations , where structural explanations explain a phenomenon by showing it to have been an inevitable consequence of the structural …
Amelioration, inclusion, and legal recognition
Philosophers engaged in projects of 'ameliorative inquiry' offer accounts of social categories, such as those of race and gender, that set aside the descriptive question of understanding those categories as they currently exist in favour of developing accounts of how we ought to think of those categories given our political goals. For feminists whose goal is to combat gender injustice, the dictionary definition of 'woman' as 'adult human female' …
Inseparable Bedfellows
In this paper we explore the hypothesis that constrained uses of imagination are crucial to economic modeling. We propose a theoretical framework to develop this thesis through a number of specific hypotheses that we test and refine through six new, representative case studies. Our ultimate goal is to develop a philosophical account that is practice oriented and informed by empirical evidence. To do this, we deploy an abductive reasoning strategy…
Epistemology (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Mathematics (6 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (5 works) · History and Theory of Mathematics (4 works) · Mathematical practice (4 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (4 works) · Philosophy of science (4 works) · Empirical research (3 works)