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(2010) Synthese 175 (3).
The article deals with Cantor’s argument for the non-denumerability of reals somewhat in the spirit of Lakatos’ logic of mathematical discovery. At the outset Cantor’s proof is compared with some other famous proofs such as Dedekind’s recursion theorem, showing that rather than usual proofs they are resolutions to do things differently. Based on this I argue that there are “ontologically” safer ways of developing the diagonal argument into a full-fledged theory of continuum, concluding eventually that famous semantic paradoxes based on diagonal construction are caused by superficial understanding of what a name is.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/s11229-009-9527-7
Full citation:
Kolman, V. (2010). Continuum, name and paradox. Synthese 175 (3), pp. 351-367.
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