Intuition and induction

old_uid12951
titleIntuition and induction
start_date2013/10/28
schedule17h30-19h30
onlineno
summaryIn his recent book Mathematical Thought and its Objects, Charles Parsons argues that the principle of induction is not intuitive knowledge, and that many inductively definedoperations are not intuitive. In both cases, Brouwer held the opposite view. In this talk, I will compare Parsons'argument to Brouwer's and defend the latter. I will not argue that Parsons is wrong once his own conception of intuition is granted, as I do not think that that is the case. But I will try to make two points. The first is that Husserl's analyses of time awareness can be used to justify in some detail Brouwer's claim that the principle of induction and inductively defined operations are intuitive. The second is that there are certain elements in Parsons' discussion that, when developed further, would lead to Brouwer's notion thus analysed, or at least something relevantly similar to it.
responsiblesPataut, Dubucs, Panza