John L. Bell
Personal Information
Description
John Bell is professor of Logic and the Philosophy of Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. In 2006-07, he was named the first Graham and Gail Wright Faculty of Arts Distinguished Scholar at the University of Western Ontario. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was admitted on a scholarship to Oxford University at the age of 15, and graduated with a D.Phil. in Mathematics at the age of 21. His dissertation supervisor was John Crossley. He was appointed assistant lecturer in the Mathematics Department at the London School of Economics in 1968, and was appointed reader in Mathematical Logic in 1980. He taught at LSE until 1989. During this time, he served as visiting fellow at the Polish Academy of Sciences (1975) and National University of Singapore (1980, 1982). In 1989, he took a position as professor in the Philosophy Department at UWO. He is also an adjunct professor in the Mathematics Department at UWO.
Books
The art of the intelligible
"This book is a compact survey, at an elementary level, of some of the most important concepts of mathematics, with attention paid to their technical features, historical development, and their broader philosophical significance." "The book is intended for students and teachers in mathematics, the sciences, and philosophy; the greater part of its contents could be read by anyone with a good high school mathematics background."--Jacket.
Young Explorer's Adventure Guide
What's it like to live in a world where humor is banned or to work on a deep-space lighthouse? If you're lucky, you might even discover how to escape the Yawning Men! Curl up in your favorite rocket ship and set your coordinates for adventure in Volume Five of the Young Explorer's Adventure Guide! Don't miss this stellar anthology of 24 science fiction short stories for girls, boys and robots of all ages!
The Continuous, the Discrete and the Infinitesimal in Philosophy and Mathematics
Thinking out loud
Most contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and linguists think of language as basically a means by which speakers reveal their thoughts to others. Christopher Gauker calls this "the Lockean theory of language," since Locke was one of its early exponents, and he contends that it is fundamentally mistaken. The Lockean theory, he argues, cannot adequately explain the nature of the general concepts that words are supposed to express. In developing this theme, Gauker investigates a wide range of topics, including Locke's own views, contemporary theories of conceptual development, the nature of reference and logical validity, the nature of psychological explanation, and the division of epistemic labor in society. The Lockean theory contrasts with the conception of language as the medium of a distinctive kind of thinking. Gauker explains how language, so conceived, is possible as a means of cooperative interaction. He articulates the possibility and objectivity of a kind of non-conceptual thinking about similarities and causal relations, which allows him to explain how a simple language might be learned. He then takes on the problem of logical structure and gives a formally precise account of logical validity formulated in terms of "assertibility in a context" rather than in terms of truth. Finally, he describes the role that attributions of belief and meaning play in facilitating cooperative interaction. With lucid and persuasive arguments, his book challenges philosophers, psychologists, linguists, and logicians to rethink their fundamental assumptions about the nature of language.
Set Theory
Written as a follow-up to the author's 'Boolean-Valued Models and Independence Proofs In Set Theory', this text provides an exposition of some of the most important results in set theory obtained in the 20th century - the independence of the continuum hypothesis and the axiom of choice.