Mathematical Propositions Research Articles

Computability and human symbolic output

This paper concerns “human symbolic output,” or strings of characters produced by humans in our various symbolic systems; e.g., sentences in a natural language, mathematical propositions, and so on. One can form a set that consists of all of the strings of characters that have been produced by at least one human up to any given moment in human history. We argue that at any particular moment in human history, even at moments in the distant future, this set is finite. But then, given fundamental results in recursion theory, the set will also be recursive, recursively enumerable, axiomatizable, and could be the output of a Turing machine. We then argue that it is impossible to produce a string of symbols that humans could possibly produce but no Turing machine could. Moreover, we show that any given string of symbols that we could produce could also be the output of a Turing machine. Our arguments have implications for Hilbert’s sixth problem and the possibility of axiomatizing particular sciences, they undermine at least two distinct arguments against the possibility of Artificial Intelligence, and they entail that expert systems that are the equals of human experts are possible, and so at least one of the goals of Artificial Intelligence can be realized, at least in principle.

Foundation of Mathematics between Theory and Practice

In this article I propose to look at set theory not only as a founda­tion of mathematics in a traditional sense, but as a foundation for mathemat­ical practice. For this purpose I distinguish between a standard, ontological, set theoretical foundation that aims to find a set theoretical surrogate to every mathematical object, and a practical one that tries to explain mathematical phenomena, giving necessary and sufficient conditions for the proof of mathematical propositions. I will present some example of this use of set theoretical methods, in the context of mainstream mathematics, in terms of independence proofs, equiconsistency results and discussing some recent results that show how it is possible to “complete” the structures H(ℵ1) and H(ℵ2). Then I will argue that a set theoretical foundation of mathematics can be relevant also for the philosophy of mathematical practice, as long as some axioms of set theory can be seen as explanations of mathematical phenomena. In the end I will propose a more general distinction between two different kinds of foundation: a practical one and a theoretical one, drawing some examples from the history of the foundation of mathematics.

Hilbert's objectivity

Detlefsen (1986) reads Hilbert's program as a sophisticated defense of instrumentalism, but Feferman (1998) has it that Hilbert's program leaves significant ontological questions unanswered. One such question is of the reference of individual number terms. Hilbert's use of admittedly “meaningless” signs for numbers and formulae appears to impair his ability to establish the reference of mathematical terms and the content of mathematical propositions (Weyl, 2009/1949; Kitcher, 1976). The paper traces the history and context of Hilbert's reasoning about signs, which illuminates Hilbert's account of mathematical objectivity, axiomatics, idealization, and consistency.

A Simplified Improvement on the Design of QO-STBC Based on Hadamard Matrices

In this paper, a simplified approach for implementing QO-STBC is proposed and evaluated with improved performance. It is based on the Hadamard matrix, in which the scheme exploits the Hadamard matrix property to attain full diversity. Hadamard matrix has the characteristic that diagonalizes a quasi-cyclic matrix and consequently, a decoding matrix so that a diagonal matrix which permits linear decoding is achieved. Using quasicyclic matrices in designing QO-STBC systems requires that the codes should be rotated to reasonably separate one code from another such that error floor in the design can be minimized. It will be shown that, orthogonalizing the secondary codes and then imposing the Hadamard criteria of the scheme can be well diagonalized. The results of this simplified approach demonstrate full diversity and better performance than the interference-free QO-STBC. Results show about 4 dB gain with respect to the interference-free QO-STBC scheme and it performs alike with the earlier Hadamard based QO-STBC designed with rotation. These results achieve the consequent mathematical proposition of the Hadamard matrix and its property is also shown in this study.

통합형 수리논술 지도 사례 - 구체물과 공학적 도구를 활용한 원뿔곡선 수업 -

대학 입학 전형에서 통합 논술이 시행되면서 학교 교사나 학생들은 통합 논술의 중요성을 인식하고 필요하다고 생각하지만 실제 교사들은 지도 방법의 어려움을 갖고 있다. 본 연구는 예비수학교사를 대상으로 통합 논술 지도를 위한 수업의 사례를 통해 교육적 시사점을 도출해보고자 한다. 수업은 내용 지식으로서 수학에서의 원뿔곡선의 정의와 안테나 반사판의 설계에 적용된 원뿔곡선의 반사 성질을 주제로 하고, 수학사, 구체물, 종이접기, 컴퓨터 등을 이용하여 학생들이 원뿔곡선의 정의와 성질을 발견하게 하였다. 이러한 교수 학습 과정에서 학생들은 수학사를 통해 수학적 지식이 인간에 의해서 발명되었음을 이해할 수 있고, 정의나 명제를 만들고 정당화 해봄으로써 수학적 명제의 타당성을 평가할 수 있을 것이다. 또한, 발견한 성질들 사이의 관계를 논리적으로 기술할 수 있으며, 정당화 과정에서 이유나 근거를 설득력 있게 기술할 수 있다. 통합 논술을 지도함에 있어서 내용에 따라 다양한 접근의 수업 자료와 지도 방법에 대한 연구가 계속되어야 할 것이다. As integrated essay writing is performed in university entrance examinations, teachers and students recognize the importance of integrated essay, but teachers have still difficulties of teaching methods. The purpose of this study is to derive educational implications through case of mathematics instruction for integrated essay education to pre-service mathematics teachers. The content knowledge of this class is a definition of conic section in mathematics and properties of conic section in an antenna reflector. The students have to discover them using the history of math, manipulative material, paper-folding and computer simulation. In this teaching and learning process the students can realize mathematical knowledge invented by humans through history of mathematics. The students can evaluate the validity of that as create and justify a mathematical proposition. Also, the students can explain the relation between them logically and descript cause or basis convincingly in the process of justifying. We should keep our study to instructional materials and teaching methods in integrated essay education.

The aim of Russell’s early logicism: a reinterpretation

I argue that three main interpretations of the aim of Russell’s early logicism in The Principles of Mathematics (1903) are mistaken, and propose a new interpretation. According to this new interpretation, the aim of Russell’s logicism is to show, in opposition to Kant, that mathematical propositions have a certain sort of complete generality which entails that their truth is independent of space and time. I argue that on this interpretation two often-heard objections to Russell’s logicism, deriving from Godel’s incompleteness theorem and from the non-logical character of some of the axioms of Principia Mathematica respectively, can be seen to be inconclusive. I then proceed to identify two challenges that Russell’s logicism, as presently construed, faces, but argue that these challenges do not appear unanswerable.

Middle School Children’s Mathematical Reasoning and Proving Schemes

In this work we explored proof schemes used by 41 middle school students when confronted with four mathematical propositions that demanded verification of accuracy of statements. The students’ perception of mathematically complete vs. convincing arguments in different mathematics branches was also elicited. Lastly, we considered whether the students recognized and identified advantages associated with using justification models different from their own in order to offer a theoretical account for how individuals’ proof scheme choice might be impacted by such an exposure.

Determinants of Experienced Utility: Laws and Implications

Satisfaction in experiencing the future depends on decisions made today. We consider six well-known psychological laws governing satisfaction. The laws capture habit formation and satiation. We show it is possible to formalize these laws by means of a utility model and to derive implications from the laws: wanting versus liking, crescendo, recharge periods, variety seeking, and craving. The discussion combines mathematical propositions, experimental findings in psychology, and time-honored wisdom. We discuss how the sixth law—projection bias—may lead to incorrect predictions of experienced utility and suboptimal life-balance choices.

Mathematical method and Newtonian science in the philosophy of Christian Wolff

This paper aims to illuminate Christian Wolff’s view of mathematical reasoning, and its use in metaphysics, by comparing his and Leibniz’s responses to Newton’s work. Both Wolff and Leibniz object that Newton’s metaphysics is based on ideas of sense and imagination that are suitable only for mathematics. Yet Wolff expresses more regard (than Leibniz) for Newton’s scientific achievement. Wolff’s approval of the use of imaginative ideas in Newtonian mathematical science seems to commit him to an inconsistent triad. For he rejects their use in metaphysics, and also holds that every scientific discipline must follow mathematics’ method. A facile resolution would be to suppose Wolff identifies the method of mathematics with the order in which propositions are deduced, or with “analysis” that reveals the structure of concepts. This would be to assimilate Wolff’s view to Leibniz’s (on which all mathematical propositions are ultimately derived from definitions, and definitions are justified by conceptual analysis). On this construal, mathematical reasoning involves only the understanding. But Wolff conceives mathematics’ method more broadly, to include processes of concept-formation which involve perception and imagination. Thus my way of resolving the tension is to find roles for perception and imagination in the formation of metaphysical concepts.

WITTGENSTEIN E A MEDIDA DA CIRCUNFERÊNCIA

Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics involves two highly controversial theses: the idea that mathematical propositions are not about (abstract) objects and the idea that no mathematical conjecture is ever answered as such, because the advent of the proof always determines a semantical shift of the meanings of the terms involved in the conjecture. The present article offers a reconstruction of Wittgenstein’s arguments supporting these theses within a very restricted setting: Archimedes’ discovery of an algorithm for calculating the number Pi.

WITTGENSTEIN E A MEDIDA DA CIRCUNFERÊNCIA

Wittgenstein’s philosophy of mathematics involves two highly controversial theses: the idea that mathematical propositions are not about (abstract) objects and the idea that no mathematical conjecture is ever answered as such, because the advent of the proof always determines a semantical shift of the meanings of the terms involved in the conjecture. The present article offers a reconstruction of Wittgenstein’s arguments supporting these theses within a very restricted setting: Archimedes’ discovery of an algorithm for calculating the number Pi.

A demand-responsive decision support system for coal transportation

In this paper, a demand-responsive decision support system is proposed by integrating the operations of coal shipment, coal stockpiles and coal railing within a whole system. A generic and flexible scheduling optimisation methodology is developed to identify, represent, model, solve and analyse the coal transport problem in a standard and convenient way. As a result, the integrated train-stockpile-ship timetable is created and optimised for improving overall efficiency of coal transport system. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis based on extensive computational experiments is conducted to validate the proposed methodology. The mathematical proposition and proof are concluded as technical and insightful advices for industry practice. The proposed methodology provides better decision making on how to assign rail rolling-stocks and upgrade infrastructure in order to significantly improve capacity utilisation with the best resource-effectiveness ratio. The proposed decision support system with train-stockpile-ship scheduling optimisation techniques is promising to be applied in railway or mining industry, especially as a useful quantitative decision making tool on how to use more current rolling-stocks or whether to buy additional rolling-stocks for mining transportation.

The ability of students and teachers to use counter-examples to justify mathematical propositions: a pilot study in South Korea and Hong Kong

Counter-examples, which are a distinct kind of example, have a functional role in inducing logically deductive reasoning skills in the learning process. In this investigation, we compare the ability of students and prospective teachers in South Korea and Hong Kong to use counter-examples to justify mathematical propositions. The results highlight that South Korean students performed better than Hong Kong students at justifying propositions using counter-examples in algebra problems, but both did equally well in geometry problems. In terms of the prospective teachers’ ability to justify propositions using counter-examples in two particular topics, properties of the absolute value function and parallelogram, Hong Kong prospective teachers performed relatively weakly in the absolute value problem but better in the parallelogram problem compared with South Korean prospective teachers. The weaknesses and strengths of students and prospective teachers in generating counter-examples associated with logical reasoning in mathematical contexts in the two regions indicate ways of improving the effectiveness of learning and teaching mathematics through the use of counter-examples.

What Kind of Uncertainty is That? Using Personal Probability for Expressing One's Thinking About Logical and Mathematical Propositions

What Kind of Uncertainty is That? Using Personal Probability for Expressing One's Thinking About Logical and Mathematical Propositions

Determinants of Experienced Utility: Laws and Implications

Satisfaction in experiencing the future depends on decisions made today. We consider six well-known psychological laws governing satisfaction. The laws capture habit formation, social comparison, and satiation. We show it is possible to formalize these laws by means of a utility model, and to derive implications from the laws: wanting vs. liking, crescendo, recharge periods, variety seeking, and craving. The discussion combines mathematical propositions, experimental findings in psychology, and time-honored wisdom. We discuss how the sixth law, presentism, may lead to incorrect predictions of experienced utility and suboptimal life-balance choices.

Algorithm for topological design of multi-loop hybrid mechanisms via logical proposition

SUMMARYThis paper introduces the mathematical logical proposition into kinematics and presents a novel method for topological design and representation of mechanisms. The six-value non-classical logical matrix in three orders is proposed to represent spatial basic motions, relations, and selection of moving reference frame. The combinatorial logical sets of mechanisms are built and axiomatized to analyze serial–parallel hybrid mechanisms. In accordance to the logical relations, the mapping between topological arrangement and topological geometry is developed, and algorithm of decomposition synthesis is presented. Furthermore, the higher dimensional topological arrangement of multi-loop hybrid mechanism can be obtained by mapping of higher dimensional geometry. At last, four typical examples are developed to illustrate application of method of logical proposition in topological design of mechanisms. The method is helpful for topological design and analysis of multi-loop hybrid mechanisms.

On the Quinean-analyticity of mathematical propositions

This paper investigates the relation between Carnap and Quine’s views on analyticity on the one hand, and their views on philosophical analysis or explication on the other. I argue that the stance each takes on what constitutes a successful explication largely dictates the view they take on analyticity. I show that although acknowledged by neither party (in fact Quine frequently expressed his agreement with Carnap on this subject) their views on explication are substantially different. I argue that this difference not only explains their differences on the question of analyticity, but points to a Quinean way to answer a challenge that Quine posed to Carnap. The answer to this challenge leads to a Quinean view of analyticity such that arithmetical truths are analytic, according to Quine’s own remarks, and set theory is at least defensibly analytic.

Logical independence and quantum randomness

We propose a link between logical independence and quantum physics. We demonstrate that quantum systems in the eigenstates of Pauli group operators are capable of encoding mathematical axioms and show that Pauli group quantum measurements are capable of revealing whether or not a given proposition is logically dependent on the axiomatic system. Whenever a mathematical proposition is logically independent of the axioms encoded in the measured state, the measurement associated with the proposition gives random outcomes. This allows for an experimental test of logical independence. Conversely, it also allows for an explanation of the probabilities of random outcomes observed in Pauli group measurements from logical independence without invoking quantum theory. The axiomatic systems we study can be completed and are therefore not subject to Gödel's incompleteness theorem.

Small Signal Stability Of A Microgrid With Parallel Connected Distributed Generation

Abstract Distributed Generation, or DG, involves utilization of small generators that are distributed in a power network, to supply the electric power demands of utility customers. This paper presents the small signal analysis of droop based generation control schemes for pazallel connected DG inverters comprising of active power-frequency and reactive power-voltage controllers. Small-signal models aze developed for microgrids consisting of several DGs connected in a parallel configuration. Mathematical propositions that develop sufficiency conditions for stability of the system are developed.

Remarks on Poincaré’ Notion of Mathematical Rigour

Between 1906 and 1911, as a response to Betrand's Russell's review of La Science et l'Hypothese, Henri Poincare launched an attack on the movement to formalise the foundations of mathematics reducing it to logic. The main point is the following: the universality of logic is based on the idea that their truth is independent of any context including epistemic and cultural contexts. From the free context notion of truth and proof it follows that, given an axiomatic system, nothing new can follow. One of the main strategies of Poincare's solution to this dilemma is based on the notions of understanding and of grasping the architecture of the propositions of mathematics. According to this view mathematic rigour does not reduce to “derive blindly” without gaps from axioms, mathematical rigour is, according to Poincare, closely linked to the ability to grasp the architecture of mathematics and contribute to an extension of the meaning embedded in structures that constitute the architecture of mathematical propositions. The focus of my paper relates precisely to the notion of architecture and to the notion of understanding. According to my reconstruction, Poincare's suggestions could be seen as pointing out that understanding is linked to reason not only within a structure but reasoning about the structure.