***CSHPM Online Colloquium: Jean-Charles Pelland (Nov 18th)***
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Nicolas Fillion
Nov 10, 2022, 7:02:32 PM11/10/22
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***CSHPM Online Colloquium: Jean-Charles Pelland (Nov 18th)***
The Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics (http://www.cshpm.org/) invites members as well as the broader scholarly community to the next talk in our online colloquium series via Zoom. Participants are encouraged to become members (for as little as $10-$30/year, depending on your employment status), but it is not required. Non-members can get regular updates on our activities by liking us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cshpmschpm). The talk will last 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A.
Jean-Charles Pelland, University of Bergen, will deliver the 24th talk of the CSHPM Online Colloquium series.
DATE: November 18th
TIME: Vancouver 11:00; Montreal/Toronto 14:00
TITLE: Which Numeral is that? On notational privilege
ABSTRACT: While the criticism of the Frege-Russell definition of numbers in Wittgenstein’s surveyability
argument has been shown to be largely off the mark (e.g. by Steiner 1975), an interesting aspect
of this argument is its appeal to psychological considerations, including features of how we see
things and how we can survey things, to refute part of Russell’s work in the Principia. Some of
the questions raised by Wittgenstein’s criticism of Russell here were taken up by Kripke in his
Whitehead Lectures at Harvard in 1992, as well as in subsequent refinements of these lectures,
especially the lecture he gave in Oxford in 2016, where he explores the notion of privileged
notation and the relation between numbers and numerals.
In this exploratory talk, I wish to follow up on Kripke’s discussion to explore in what sense, if
any, we can consider numerical representations as having a form of priority over others, and why.
While this topic does have foundational implications, here I will focus mostly on the extent to
which recent advances in the study of numerical cognition can shed some light on Wittgenstein’s
and Kripke’s discussion of the relation between numbers and numeral expressions. More
specifically, I wish to explore the extent to which empirical data from various branches of
cognitive science on the Approximate Number System, the Object-File System and the
associated notion of ‘subitizing’ can explain why some numeral systems appear to require less
computing to access their denotation than others. This will involve taking a look at features of
numeration systems, including their representational effect (Zang & Norman 1995), and whether
it is possible to explain their variable spread through cultures via their fit with the cognitive
systems involved in the development of our numerical abilities.
Please distribute this information to all who might be interested. The information to join the session via Zoom is as follows:
Topic: CSHPM Colloquium: Jean-Charles Pelland (Bergen)
Time: Nov 18, 2022 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://sfu.zoom.us/j/68006446494?pwd=RFhybUZ6K2hpcnFjTXVEbGVRYnRNQT09
Meeting ID: 680 0644 6494
Password: 042397
The Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics (http://www.cshpm.org/) invites members as well as the broader scholarly community to the next talk in our online colloquium series via Zoom. Participants are encouraged to become members (for as little as $10-$30/year, depending on your employment status), but it is not required. Non-members can get regular updates on our activities by liking us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/cshpmschpm). The talk will last 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A.
Jean-Charles Pelland, University of Bergen, will deliver the 24th talk of the CSHPM Online Colloquium series.
DATE: November 18th
TIME: Vancouver 11:00; Montreal/Toronto 14:00
TITLE: Which Numeral is that? On notational privilege
ABSTRACT: While the criticism of the Frege-Russell definition of numbers in Wittgenstein’s surveyability
argument has been shown to be largely off the mark (e.g. by Steiner 1975), an interesting aspect
of this argument is its appeal to psychological considerations, including features of how we see
things and how we can survey things, to refute part of Russell’s work in the Principia. Some of
the questions raised by Wittgenstein’s criticism of Russell here were taken up by Kripke in his
Whitehead Lectures at Harvard in 1992, as well as in subsequent refinements of these lectures,
especially the lecture he gave in Oxford in 2016, where he explores the notion of privileged
notation and the relation between numbers and numerals.
In this exploratory talk, I wish to follow up on Kripke’s discussion to explore in what sense, if
any, we can consider numerical representations as having a form of priority over others, and why.
While this topic does have foundational implications, here I will focus mostly on the extent to
which recent advances in the study of numerical cognition can shed some light on Wittgenstein’s
and Kripke’s discussion of the relation between numbers and numeral expressions. More
specifically, I wish to explore the extent to which empirical data from various branches of
cognitive science on the Approximate Number System, the Object-File System and the
associated notion of ‘subitizing’ can explain why some numeral systems appear to require less
computing to access their denotation than others. This will involve taking a look at features of
numeration systems, including their representational effect (Zang & Norman 1995), and whether
it is possible to explain their variable spread through cultures via their fit with the cognitive
systems involved in the development of our numerical abilities.
Please distribute this information to all who might be interested. The information to join the session via Zoom is as follows:
Topic: CSHPM Colloquium: Jean-Charles Pelland (Bergen)
Time: Nov 18, 2022 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://sfu.zoom.us/j/68006446494?pwd=RFhybUZ6K2hpcnFjTXVEbGVRYnRNQT09
Meeting ID: 680 0644 6494
Password: 042397
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