T, W. 12, Lecture Room, Rad. Hum. (weeks 1–4).

These are the core lectures for first-year mathematic and philosophy students. We’ll consider, among other things, Frege’s attack on Mill’s empiricism, Frege’s views on number ascriptions, the ‘Julius Caesar’ problem, and Frege’s attempt at a logicist reduction of arithmetic to Hume’s Principle, and ultimately to his ill-fated theory of extensions.

Set Text: Frege, Foundations of Arithmetic (trans. J. L. Austin)

Lecture notes (last updated: Wednesday, week 4, TT19)