Abstract
In this paper I explore some connections between the epistemology of modality and the epistemology of mathematics, and argue that they have far more in common than it may initially seem to be the case—even though modality need not (in fact, should not) be characterized in terms of possible worlds (as the modal realist insists) and mathematics need not (in fact, should not) be understood in terms of abstract entities (as the platonist recommends). Let’s see why.
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Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Jacob Busch, Albert Casullo, Bob Fischer, Hannes Leitgeb, Daniel Nolan, Sonia Roca Royes, Scott Shalkowski, Asbjørn Steglich-Petersen, Anand Vaidya, and Tim Williamson for helpful discussions of the issues examined in this paper. Thanks, in particular, to Bob Fischer, Melisa Vivanco, and an anonymous referee for insightful comments on earlier versions of the work. Their comments led to substantial improvements.
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Bueno, O. (2017). The Epistemology of Modality and the Epistemology of Mathematics. In: Fischer, B., Leon, F. (eds) Modal Epistemology After Rationalism. Synthese Library, vol 378. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44309-6_5
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