Philosophy of Mathematics seminar

Crispin Wright, NYU

Making Exceptions  

Quinean “Anti-exceptionalism” about logic may be taken to involve two principal, distinguishable claims:

Corroboration—that the epistemic good-standing of logical principles is properly earned in the same way as the confirmation of all empirical scientific laws. We are justified in accepting such principles by, and only by, their participation in on-going successful scientific theory.

Rejection—that, as with scientific hypotheses, logical principles are one and all in principle open to rational rejection or revision on purely empirical grounds if the system in which they are participant runs into “recalcitrant experience” and such an adjustment promises to smooth out the wrinkles.

I'll argue that neither claim can be sustained in full generality.