{"title":"Mathematical understanding and “What if things had been different?” questions","authors":"A. Mărășoiu","doi":"10.5840/bjp201911215","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"According to Grimm (2014), we only understand a phenomenon if we know what other phenomena it depends on, and we identify dependencies according to how we answer “What if things had been different?” questions. I argue that this view meets with mathematical counterexamples. For, in mathematics, things couldn't have been different. I consider three replies Grimm may make, and argue they do not succeed.","PeriodicalId":41126,"journal":{"name":"Balkan Journal of Philosophy","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1000,"publicationDate":"2019-10-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Balkan Journal of Philosophy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5840/bjp201911215","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"PHILOSOPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
According to Grimm (2014), we only understand a phenomenon if we know what other phenomena it depends on, and we identify dependencies according to how we answer “What if things had been different?” questions. I argue that this view meets with mathematical counterexamples. For, in mathematics, things couldn't have been different. I consider three replies Grimm may make, and argue they do not succeed.
期刊介绍：
The Balkan Journal of Philosophy is a peer-reviewed international periodical, academic in spirit, that publishes high-quality papers on current problems and discussions in philosophy. While open to all fields and interests, the journal devotes special attention to the treatment of philosophical problems in the Balkans and south-eastern Europe, and to their influence on the development of philosophy in this region. All papers are publisihed in English. BJP is published under the auspices of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
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