Title:
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Numbers in action : a naturalist response to the access problem
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This thesis attempts to provide a response to the Access Problem by developing a
naturalist account of our access to mathematical knowledge. On the basis of recent
empirical research into the nature of mathematical cognition, it is argued that our
most basic access to arithmetical content is mediated by perceptual processes.
Moreover, in line with the theory of embodied cognition, arithmetical cognition is
grounded in the perceptual systems responsible for these processes, as well as other
perceptual and motor systems that are involved with our everyday interaction with
the world. This motivates a response to the Access Problem according to which
access to some mathematical content is on a par with our access to everyday objects
of perception. Whilst the picture that emerges on the basis of this response is
ontologically neutral, in the sense of being compatible with either a realist or anti-realist
approach to mathematics, it places significant constraints on a naturalistically
acceptable approach to the ontology of mathematics.
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