News and Events: Conferences

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26-28 March 2007, Second Perspectives on Mathematical Practices conference, Brussels, Belgium

Date: 26-28 March 2007
Location: Brussels, Belgium
Deadline: 15 November 2006

The general philosophical theme of this meeting will be that of why and how philosophers and historians of mathematics need each other. This takes for granted the thesis, ventilated by Lakatos, that they do so. One is here referring, of course, to his famous paraphrase of Kantian dictum: "The history of mathematics, lacking the guidance of philosophy, has become blind, while the philosophy of mathematics, turning its back on the most intruiging phenomena in the history of mathematics, has become empty".

Any serious attempt at remedying this, and thus approaching the history and philosophy of mathematics, will either have to "bring to" philosophers the historian's expertise of conducting meticulous diachronical case-studies, or else "bring to" historians the philosopher's concern with epistemological depth; preferably both. Moreover, a focus on the historical dimension of mathematical practices is not to the exclusion of contemporary themes. To the contrary: Lakatos's point pertains to the historicity of mathematical knowledge, past and present.

For more and detailed information, visit http://www.vub.ac.be/CLWF/PMP2007/.

Deadline for abstracts: 15 November 2006.

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