The Arché Papers on the Mathematics of Abstraction

This volume collects together a number of important papers concerning both the method of abstraction generally and the use of particular abstraction principles to reconstruct central areas of mathematics along logicist lines. Gottlob Frege's original logicist project was, in effect, refuted by Russell's paradox. Crispin Wright has recently revived Frege s enterprise, however, providing a philosophical and technical framework within which a reconstruction of arithmetic is possible. While the Neo-Fregean project has received extensive attention and discussion, the present volume is unique in presenting a thoroughgoing examination of the mathematical aspects of the neo-logicist project (and the particular philosophical issues arising from these technical concerns). Attention is focused on extending the Neo-Fregean treatment to all of mathematics, with the reconstruction of real analysis from various cut- or cauchy-sequence-related abstraction principles and the reconstruction of set theory from various restricted versions of Basic Law V as case studies. As a result, the volume provides a test of the scope and limits of the neo-logicist project, detailing what has been accomplished and outlining the desiderata still outstanding. All papers in the anthology have their origins in presentations at Arche events, thus providing a volume that is both a survey of the cutting edge in research on the technical aspects of abstraction and a catalogue of the work in this area that has been supported in various ways by Arche.