Numbers and Truth

Natural numbers belong to the most commonly known mathematical entities and are studied and discussed from various angles. Philosophers, mathematicians, cognitive scientists, computer scientists among others conduct research having for its aim a deeper understanding of these objects. The present conference “Numbers and truth” will contribute to these efforts and bring together researchers and traditions from all these areas to construct common ground for new research.

Within recent philosophy of mathematics a couple of competitive philosophical schools came to the foreground; importantly, structuralism and neo-Fregeanism. Both of them espouse realism about mathematical objects: these objects exist independently of our minds. In addition, both espouse realism about truth: arithmetical sentences have objective truth values. In this context a natural question arises whether theories of arithmetical truth provide us a better understanding of what is true of natural numbers, and in consequence, of what natural numbers are. What is the relation between a choice of a particular truth theory for arithmetical language and one’s overall standpoint in the philosophy of mathematics, or maybe even one’s preferred way of doing mathematics? On a general level, the aim of the conference is to address issues of this sort. This will be achieved by bringing together both the acknowledged experts and outstanding younger researchers, in order to facilitate discussion between philosophers of mathematics, truth theorists and mathematicians.