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Professor Awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize

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Professor Awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize

Professor Awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize

The Department of Philosophy would like to congratulate Professor Emily Grosholz who has been awarded the Fernando Gil International Prize in the Philosophy of Science for her 2016 book, Starry Reckoning: Reference and Analysis in Mathematics and Cosmology.

Quoted from the Fernando Gil International Prize website: “In this book Emily Grosholz adopts the approach of history and philosophy of science and mathematics, and indeed defends this approach in the course of the book. On the philosophical side, Emily Grosholz develops a clear and original point of view. This is that mathematics and science require both discourses of analysis and discourses of reference. Here ‘analysis’ does not mean ‘logical analysis’, but has a sense which Emily Grosholz takes from Leibniz, namely: ‘the search for conditions of intelligibility’. Her views therefore are a development of some Leibnizian notions, and her work gives an interesting new interpretation of Leibniz. Her philosophical thesis is illustrated by a great variety of historical case studies, which include cases from the early modern period, the 19th century, and recent research. There are also examples from both mathematics and physics (cosmology). The successful application of the underlying philosophical thesis to so many examples shows that it is both plausible and fruitful, and the case studies themselves are very interesting. The jury was particularly impressed by Emily Grosholz’ study of Wiles recent proof of Fermat’s last theorem. They regarded it as admirable that a philosopher of mathematics should reflect on a recent and technically very difficult proof. Such a strategy can produce an ‘immanent’ philosophy. A further study of McIntyre’s logical investigation of Wiles’ proof leads Emily Grosholz to suggest a new attitude to mathematical logic as a discipline. In her own words (p.vi): “ … mathematical logic … is not an over-discourse that should supplant others … but one of many, which can be integrated with other mathematical discourses in a variety of fruitful ways.” Given all these impressive features of Emily Grosholz’ book, the jury judged it to be a worthy winner of the Fernando Gil prize for 2017.”

To read more please visit: http://fernando-gil.org.pt/en/nominees/2017/winner/

or see the announcement on Penn State News here:http://news.psu.edu/story/501195/2018/01/17/academics/emily-grosholz-awarded-fernando-gil-international-prize-philosophy

 

Congratulations Emily!