Titus-Hepp Lecture: ‘Contingent Abstract Objects’

The Titus-Hepp Lecture Series welcomes Otavio Bueno, professor of philosophy at the University of Miami, presenting “Contingent Abstract Objects.” According to the received view of mathematical objects, if they exist, they necessarily exist, and statements about them, if true, are necessarily true. This provides a particular conception of abstract objects that supports platonism, a view that asserts the antecedents of both conditionals above. In this talk, Bueno resists the received view, and argues instead that mathematical objects do not necessarily exist nor are statements about them necessarily true, if true at all.