b. 1948
John Bigelow is an Australian philosopher known for his work in metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science. He has defended a scientific realist and Platonist approach to mathematics, arguing that mathematical entities are real universals instantiated in the physical world.
Authored 'The Reality of Numbers: A Physicalist's Philosophy of Mathematics' (1988)
Co-authored 'Science and Necessity' (1990) with Robert Pargetter
Defended a Platonist-physicalist account of mathematical objects as universals
Contributed to scientific realism and the metaphysics of laws of nature
Long-serving professor of philosophy at Monash University
By analogy, simply positing relational tropes does not provide an effective theoretical response to Bradley's argument
claimThe lack of informativeness is not a good objection to the optimalist account of negative truths
claimBoyd's abductive argument for scientific methodology's reliability still stands