# Quanta Magazine Covers Reverse Mathematics

An article just published in Quanta Magazine by Natalie Wolchover covers a recent result from reverse mathematics.  Keita Yokoyama and Ludovic Patey showed that Ramsey’s theorem for pairs is finitistically reducible, i.e., it is $$\Pi_3$$ conservative over $$I\Sigma_1$$. The article explains Ramsey’s theorem, but also Hilbert’s program and its more recent relativizations, i.e., the reverse mathematics program.

# CfA: Foundations of Mathematical Structuralism

12-14 October 2016
Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich

In the course of the last century, different general frameworks for the foundations of mathematics have been investigated. The orthodox approach to foundations interprets mathematics in the universe of sets. More recently, however, there have been other developments that call into question the whole method of set theory as a foundational discipline. Category-theoretic methods that focus on structural relationships and structure-preserving mappings between mathematical objects, rather than on the objects themselves, have been in play since the early 1960s. But in the last few years they have found clarification and expression through the development of homotopy type theory. This represents a fascinating development in the philosophy of mathematics, where category-theoretic structural methods are combined with type theory to produce a foundation that accounts for the structural aspects of mathematical practice. We are now at a point where the notion of mathematical structure can be elucidated more clearly and its role in the foundations of mathematics can be explored more fruitfully.

The main objective of the conference is to reevaluate the different perspectives on mathematical structuralism in the foundations of mathematics and in mathematical practice. To do this, the conference will explore the following research questions: Does mathematical structuralism offer a philosophically viable foundation for modern mathematics? What role do key notions such as structural abstraction, invariance, dependence, or structural identity play in the different theories of structuralism? To what degree does mathematical structuralism as a philosophical position describe actual mathematical practice? Does category theory or homotopy type theory provide a fully structural account for mathematics?

## Confirmed Speakers

• Prof. Steve Awodey (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Dr. Jessica Carter (University of Southern Denmark)
• Prof. Gerhard Heinzmann (Université de Lorraine)
• Prof. Geoffrey Hellman (University of Minnesota)
• Prof. James Ladyman (University of Bristol)
• Prof. Elaine Landry (UC Davis)
• Prof. Hannes Leitgeb (LMU Munich)
• Dr. Mary Leng (University of York)
• Prof. Øystein Linnebo (University of Oslo)
• Prof. Erich Reck (UC Riverside)

## Call for Abstracts

We invite the submission of abstracts on topics related to mathematical structuralism for presentation at the conference. Abstracts should include a title, a brief abstract (up to 100 words), and a full abstract (up to 1000 words), blinded for peer review. Authors should send their abstracts (in pdf format), together with their name, institutional affiliation and current position to mathematicalstructuralism2016@lrz.uni-muenchen.de. We will select up to five submissions for presentation at the conference. The conference language is English.