Matthew E. Moore

Education:

University of California at Berkeley, 1978–1981, A.B., English

San Francisco State University, 1982–1985, M.A., Philosophy

University of Illinois at Chicago, 1994–2000, Ph.D., Philosophy

Areas of Specialization:

Logic
Philosophy of mathematics
Philosophy of science

Areas of Competence:

Metaphysics
Ethics

Publications:

“A Cantorian Argument against Infinitesimals” (Synthese
133: 305–330, 2002): a reconstruction of an influential
but obscure argument of Cantor’s against infinitesimals,
and an application of the argument to Robinson’s nonstandard
analysis.

“Archimedean Intuitions” (Theoria 68: 185–204, 2002):
an attack on the claim that geometrical intuition suffices
to establish that physical space satisfies the Archimedean
Axiom.

Work Submitted for Publication:

“The Completeness of the Real Line”: a skeptical treatment
of the widely held view that the arithmetical structure
of the real numbers accurately reflects the geometrical
structure of lines in space.

Work in Progress:

“Mathematical Realism and Set Theoretic Practice”: a
critical exposition of Penelope Maddy’s Objection from
Practice, which purports to show that indispensability
arguments bring mathematical realism into problematic
con.ict with mathematical practice.

“Naturalism, Truth and Beauty in Mathematics”: a
consideration of the prospects for mathematical realism
within a naturalistic framework, and in particular within
the broadly anti-realist setting of Maddy’s mathematical
naturalism.

Presentations:

“The Berkeleyan Rejection of the Infinitesimal”: presented
to the Sigma Xi Student Research Forum at UIC,
April 1997.

“The Completeness of the Real Line”: presented to the
Faculty Work in Progress Workshop, UIC Philosophy Department,
October 2000, and at Colgate University, February
2001.

“Whose Line Is It, Anyway?”: presented to the Physics
Society, Northwestern University, February 2003, and to
the Brooklyn College Philosophy Society, October 2003.

“Mathematical Realism and Set-Theoretic Practice”: presented
to the Faculty Work in Progress Workshop, Brooklyn
College, September 2003, and at the Midwest Philosophy
of Mathematics Workshop, Notre Dame, November
2003.

Languages:

French, German, Italian, Latin