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    Jeremy Gray — Carmelics
    Thinkers/Jeremy Gray
    JG

    Jeremy Gray

    contemporaryPhilosophy of Mathematics, Mathematical Formalism

    b. 1947

    Jeremy Gray (born 1947) is a British historian and philosopher of mathematics, emeritus professor at the Open University and honorary professor at the University of Warwick. He is best known for his historical studies of 19th- and early 20th-century mathematics, particularly the development of non-Euclidean and projective geometry, and for defending a formalist-historicist position on mathematical truth.

    WWikipedia

    Notable Achievements

    1

    Argued that mathematical theories such as metric geometry are formal systems with no intrinsic truth value independent of interpretation

    2

    Authored 'Plato's Ghost' (2008), a major study of the modernist transformation of mathematics circa 1890–1930

    3

    Wrote 'Worlds Out of Nothing' (2007), a foundational history of projective geometry

    4

    Produced a landmark scientific biography of Henri Poincaré examining his philosophy of geometry and conventionalism

    5

    Received the Albert Leon Whiteman Memorial Prize (2009) from the American Mathematical Society for historical scholarship

    Positions & Arguments(1)

    Modality & Possibility

    claim

    Metric geometry is neither true nor false.

    Truth & Knowledge

    claim

    Metric geometry is neither true nor false.

    At a Glance

    Ideas

    1

    Topics

    2

    Era

    contemporary

    Tradition

    Philosophy of Mathematics, Mathematical Formalism

    Topic Influence

    Truth & Knowledge1
    Modality & Possibility1

    Related Thinkers

    David Lewis2 sharedImmanuel Kant2 sharedAristotle2 sharedBrian Skyrms2 sharedBertrand Russell2 sharedDavid Hume2 sharedPlato2 sharedStathis Psillos2 shared

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