Monads and sets. On Gödel, Leibniz, and the reflection principle

Mark van Atten (1)

1 IHPST - Institut d'Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques

Gödel once offered an argument for the general reflection principle in set theory that took the form of an analogy with Leibniz' Monadology. I discuss the mathematical and philosophical background to Gödel's argument, reconstruct the proposed analogy in detail, and argue that it has no justificatory force.

Mots clés: philosophy of science

Domaines: Histoire, Philosophie et Sociologie des sciences

Mark van Atten. Monads and sets. On Gödel, Leibniz, and the reflection principle. Rahman, Shahid, Primiero, Giuseppe. Judgement and Knowledge. Papers in honour of B.G. Sundholm, King's College Publications, pp.3-33, 2009. ⟨halshs-00792058⟩