Explanatory Inference seminar - Joachim Frans

[João Daniel Dantas]

Olá,

Segue abaixo o convite para a primeira apresentação no Explanatory Inference Seminar do ano de 2021. A apresentação acontecerá em 6 de Janeiro às 11:00 - 13:00 (no horário de Brasília). Estão todos convidados.

Abraços,

João Daniel Dantas

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Dear colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce the fourth session of the Explanatory Inference seminar.

Our speaker will be Joachim Frans (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

His talk will be entitled: “Explanation, understanding and unification in mathematics". See the abstract below.

The talk will take place on Wednesday, January 6th, 3-5 pm, online only, due to the current sanitary situation.

The streaming link will be communicated in due course.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Best wishes, 

Pierre Saint-Germier and Pilar Terrés Villalonga

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Title: Explanation, understanding and unification in mathematics

Abstract: One of the central aims of the philosophical analysis of mathematical explanation is to determine how one can distinguish explanatory proofs from non-explanatory proofs. 
In the first part of my talk, I will identify some challenges connected to identifying which proofs are explanatory, and are thus an appropriate starting point for our philosophical analysis.

In the second part of my talk, I suggest considering another starting point by explicating the concept of understanding. More precisely, I will defend four claims: (i) understanding is a condition for explanation, (ii) unificatory understanding is a type of explanatory understanding, (iii) unificatory understanding is valuable in mathematics, and (iv) mathematical proofs can contribute to unificatory understanding.

As a result I argue, in the final part of the talk, that we can make a meaningful distinction between proofs based on their explanatory value while still taking the challenges mentioned above seriously. Moreover, it can help to make sense of mathematical explanations that do not involve mathematical proof.