Richard Arthur

contemporaryHistory of Philosophy / Philosophy of Mathematics

b. 1950

Richard T. W. Arthur is a contemporary Canadian philosopher and historian of philosophy, best known for his scholarship on Leibniz's metaphysics, philosophy of mathematics, and the concept of the infinite. He is Professor Emeritus at McMaster University and has produced influential translations and analyses of Leibniz's writings on the labyrinth of the continuum.

Notable Achievements

Translated and edited Leibniz's 'The Labyrinth of the Continuum: Writings on the Continuum Problem, 1672-1686'

Authored 'Monads, Composition, and Force: Ariadnean Threads through Leibniz's Labyrinth'

Developed scholarship on Leibnizian infinitesimals and the foundations of the calculus

Wrote 'Natural Deduction: An Introduction to Logic with Real Arguments, a Little History, and Some Humour'

Contributed to debates on the metaphysics of time, space, and relativity

Positions & Arguments(1)

Truth & Knowledge

claim

For any real number x, the terms of a conditionally convergent series can be rearranged so that x is the sum of the rearranged series.