Prof. Dr. (i.R.) Matthias Schirn

I completed my doctoral degree at the University of Freiburg in 1974 with a thesis on identity and synonymy in logic and semantics and subsequently taught at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and at Michigan State University. My research during this time focused on theories of meaning for natural languages and intensional semantics, and I continued working in this area at the University of California at Berkeley, St. John’s College (Oxford), Harvard University and at Wolfson College (Oxford). In 1985, I was awarded my habilitation at the University of Regensburg (Dr. phil. habil.) with a thesis on Frege’s philosophy of mathematics. Since 1987 I have held a distinguished Fiebiger-Professorship at the University of Munich (LMU) and since 2012 I have been a member of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. I have also taught at the University of Minnesota (1989), the State University of Campinas (1991), the Catholic University of São Paulo (1998), the National University of Buenos Aires (1992), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1993, 1994, 1997), the National University San Marcos in Lima (2009) and numerous other universities in Europe and Latin America. I have published in Mind, The Philosophical Review, The Philosophical Quarterly, Synthese, Erkenntnis, Axiomathes, The Journal of Symbolic Logic, The Review of Symbolic Logic, Journal of Applied Logics, Reports an Mathematical Logic, History and Philosophy of Logic, Logique et Analyse, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Metascience, Dialectica, Grazer Philosophische Studien, Kant-Studien, Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, Theoria, Crítica, Manuscrito and other international journals. I have given invited lectures at the most prestigious universities in Europe (England, Scotland, France, Austria, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia), Asia (Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, República Dominicana) and South Africa as well as at some of the most distinguished universities in the United States of America and Australia. In 2014, I delivered a series of lectures on Frege’s philosophy of mathematics at the University of Oxford and carried out related research at Wolfson College. In the same year, I was invited to work as a research professor at Kyoto University and received a research fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

Research Interests

Philosophy and history of logic; philosophy of mathematics; proof theory; philosophy of language (with side glances at the philosophy of mind and psychology); intensional semantics; epistemology; the philosophies of Aristotle, Leibniz, Kant, Frege, Hilbert, Russell and Wittgenstein

Awards

• Research fellowships of Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: 1978-1980 and 1986-1988.
• Research grant of Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and CONARE, National University of Costa Rica, Heredia, 2000.
• Research grant of Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior (CAPES), Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, 2009.
• Research grant of CAPES, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2011.
• Research fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Kyoto University, 2014.

Some recent and forthcoming publications

• 2013 Frege’s Approach to the Foundations of Analysis (1874-1903), History and Philosophy of Logic 34, 266-292.
• 2014 Frege’s Logicism and the Neo-Fregean Project, Axiomathes 24, 207-243.
• 2014 Frege on Quantities and Real Numbers in Consideration of the Theories of Cantor, Russell and Others, in Formalism and Beyond. On the Nature of Mathematical Discourse, editor G. Link, de Gruyter, Boston/Berlin, 25-95.
• 2016 On the Nature, Role and Proof of Hume’s Principle in Frege’s Logicist Project, in Early Analytic Philosophy. New Perspectives on the Tradition, editor S. Costreie, Springer, 49-96.
• 2016 Review of Gottlob Frege, Basic Laws of Arithmetic, Volumes I and II, translated and edited by Philip A. Ebert and Marcus Rossberg with Crispin Wright, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, The Philosophical Quarterly 66, 882-887.
• 2018 The Semantics of Value-Range Names and Frege’s Proof of Referentiality, The Review of Symbolic Logic 11, 224-278.
• 2018 Finitist Consistency Proofs and the Impact of Gödel’s Incompletenes Theorems on Hilbert’s Metamathematics, Journal of Applied Logics 5, 1273-1300.
• 2019 The Finite and the Infinite: On Hilbert’s Formalist Approach Before and After Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, Logique et Analyse 62, 1-34.
• 2019 Frege’s Philosophy of Geometry, Synthese 196, 929-971.
• 2019 Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox, Essays on Frege’s Basic Laws of Arithmetic, editors P. Ebert and M. Rossberg, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 437-496.
• 2019 Die Dichotomie analytisch-synthetisch bei Frege unter Berücksichtigung von Kant, Kant-Studien 110, 74-125.
• 2019 Analyticity, Abstraction and Hume’s Principle in Frege, in Fregesche Variationen, editor M. Wille, mentis, Münster, 111-127.
• 2021 Identity and the Cognitive Value of Logical Equations in Frege’s Foundational Project, completed essay (42000 words), will be submitted to The Review of Symbolic Logic in November 2021.
• 2021 Frege: Platonism and Mathematical Creation, almost completed essay (approximately 34000 words); the completed version will be submitted to Philosophia Mathematica or Synthese.
• 2022 The True and What Might be the Truth About “Is True”. A critical Assessment of Frege’s Views, almost completed essay, approximately 25000 words.
• 2022 Frege and Hilbert on Independence and Independence Proofs, largely completed essay.
• 2022 Frege on the Foundations of Mathematics, Springer, Synthese Library, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, New York, London, approximately 640 pages.
• 2022 Sinn, Bedeutung, Wahrheit. Untersuchungen zu Freges Sprachphilosophie und Logik, mentis, Paderborn, approximately 280 pages.

International Conferences Organized

• Foundational Problems in Frege and in Modern Logic, Munich, 8 to 13 July 1991. The Proceedings volume Frege: Importance and Legacy (ed. M. Schirn) was published by de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1996, 466 pages.
• Philosophy of Mathematics Today, Munich, 28 June to 4 July 1993. The Proceedings volume The Philosophy of Mathematics Today (ed. M. Schirn) was published by Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998 (paperback edition 2003), 638 pages.

Research Related Activities

• 2009 Research Professor at Universidade Federal de Ceará, Fortaleza (CAPES), research project: Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Mathematics (March-April).
• 2007-2011 Invited member of the International Research Project “The Imaginary, the Ideal and the Infinite in Mathematics. Their Theory, History, and Philosophical Understanding”, organized by Michael Detlefsen (University of Notre Dame) and Godehard Link (University of Munich) and sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, the University of Notre Dame and the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy. My paper ‘Frege on Quantities and Real Numbers in Consideration of the Theories of Cantor, Russell and Others’, deriving from this project, appeared in Formalism and Beyond. On the Nature of Mathematical Discourse, ed. G. Link, Walter de Gruyter, Boston/Berlin 2014, 25-95.
• 2011 Research Professor at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CAPES), research project: Truth and Truth-Value in the Analytic and Logical Tradition (October-December).
• 2014 Research Professor at Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques, at Marco Panza's invitation within his current research project ‘Mathematical Objectivity by Representation’ (June).
• 2014 Research Professor at Kyoto University, research project: Frege’s philosophy of geometry and Klein’s and Pasch’s reflections on intuition in geometry; research fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (October-November).

Refereeing

Invited for refereeing for Mind (repeatedly), The Journal of Philosophy, The Philosophical Quarterly, The Journal of Philosophical Logic, Philosophers' Imprint, Erkenntnis (repeatedly), Synthese (repeatedly), Axiomathes (repeatedly), Philosophia Mathematica (repeatedly), Analysis (repeatedly), History and Philosophy of Logic (repeatedly), Logica Universalis, Foundations of Science, Dialectica, European Journal of Philosophy (repeatedly), Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (repeatedly), Diálogos, Analítica, and several other international journals

Invited Lectures

2013

• ‘The True and the Truth About “Is True”. A Critical Examination of Frege’s View’, National University of Singapore, 24 January.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction and Their Criteria of Identity’, Lingnan University in Hong Kong, 28 January.
• ‘The True and the Truth About “Is True”. A Critical Examination of Frege’s View’, Hong Kong University, 31 January.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction and Their Criteria of Identity’, Stanford University, Logic Seminar led by Solomon Feferman and Grigori Mints, 19 March.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction and Their Criteria of Identity’, University of California at Irvine, Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, 22 March.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction and Their Criteria of Identity’, University of Florence, Logic Seminar led by Andrea Cantini and Pierluigi Minari, 3 May.
• ‘Hilbert’s Finitism, the Concept of Infinity, and the Decision Problem’, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Nomi, 22 October.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction and Their Criteria of Identity’, Tokyo Forum of Analytic Philosophy led by Richard Dietz, University of Tokyo, 24 October.
• ‘Hilbert and Wittgenstein on the Consistency of Mathematical Theories’, Keio University, Tokyo, 25 October.
• ‘Hilbert and Wittgenstein on the Consistency of Mathematical Theories’, Kyoto University, 31 October.
• ‘Hilbert’s Metamathematics, Finitist Consistency Proofs and the Concept of Infinity’, Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU, 20 November.

2014

• ‘Nombres propios, referencia identificatoria e identidad’, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, presentation and discussion in Spanish, 6 February.
• ‘On Finitism and Some of Its Problems’, University of Vienna, Institute Vienna Circle, Philosophy Lectures, 6 March.
• Philosophical Colloquium on Truth, University of Sidney, 12 March.
• ‘The True and the Truth About Is True’, University of Sidney, 12 March.
• ‘The True and the Truth About Is True’, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, 24 March.
• ‘Logical Abstraction and Logical Objects’, University of Oxford, Philosophy of Mathematics Seminar led by Volker Halbach, Daniel Isaacson and James Studd, 12 May.
• ‘Value-Range Terms, Referentiality and First-Order Domain’, International Workshop ‘Frege and Neo-Fregeanism’ at Université de Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques, invited speaker, organized by Marco Panza, 13 June.
• ‘Logical Objects by Abstraction, Referentiality and First-Order Domain’, University of Miami, 2 October.
• ‘The Ontology of Abstract Objects and Our Knowledge of Them’, Kyushu University, Fukuoka (Japan), 14 October.
• ‘Frege’s Philosophy of Geometry’, Kyoto University, 17 October.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite’, Tohoku University, Sendai (Japan), 20 October.
• ‘Hilbertian Proof Theory and its Philosophical Background’, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 22 October.
• ‘Frege and Kantian Epistemology’, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 23 October.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite’, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 28 October.
• ‘Abstraction and Referential Indeterminacy’, National University of Singapore, 13 November.
• ‘On Finitism and Some of Its Problems’, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 14 November.
• ‘Proper Names, Definite Descriptions and Our Identifying Reference to Objects’, Assumption University of Bangkok, 19 November.
• ‘Meaning and Truth’, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, 21 November.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction and Referential Indeterminacy’, lecture in the Colloquium on Mathematical Logic, Utrecht University, 11 December.

2015

• ‘Frege’s Logical Objects par excellence and the Problem of Referential Indeterminacy of Abstract Singular Terms’, Ghent University, Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, 20 April.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite. Reflections on Hilbert’s Metamathematics’, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, 21 April.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain), Center for Logic and Analytic Philosophy Colloquium, 22 April.
• ‘The Consistency of Mathematical Theories: Wittgenstein contra Hilbert’, The University of Chicago, Wittgenstein-Workshop, invited principal speaker, 30 April.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Seoul National University, 5 November.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Tsukuba University, Tokyo Satellite Campus, 9 November.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 12 November.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 13 November.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Liaoning University, Shenyang (China), 16 November.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Liaoning University, Shenyang (China), 16 November.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Kobe University, Department of Mathematics, Kobe (Japan), 19 November.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, Kobe University, Department of Mathematics, Kobe (Japan) 19 November.

2016

• ‘Frege’s Conception of Truth Subjected to Scrutiny’, University of Cape Town, 29 February.
• ‘Truth, Judgement and Assertoric Force’, Stellenbosch University (South Africa), 3 March.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction and Self-Evidence’, University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, 7 March.
• ‘Truth, Judgement and Assertion’, University of Pretoria, 8 March.
• ‘Frege’s Conception of Truth Subjected to Scrutiny’, University of Johannesburg, 9 March.
• Colloquium on Frege’s Philosophy of Mathematics, University of Pavia, Institute for Advanced Study 6 April.
• ‘Truth, Sense and Judgement. A Critical Examination of Frege’s Position’, University of Pavia, Institute for Advanced Study, 6 April.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction and Self-Evidence’, University of Cagliari, 7 April.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction and Self-Evidence’, University of Palermo, Seminar Series on Logic and Philosophy of Science led by Gianluigi Oliveri, 8 April.
• ‘Truth, Judgement and Assertion in Frege. A Critical Assessment’, University of Genoa, 11 April.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox’, University of Pisa, 12 April.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction and Self-Evidence’, University of Padova, 14 April.
• ‘Frege on The True and What Might Be the Truth About “Is True”’, Central European University, Budapest, 6 May.
• ‘On Hilbert’s Formalist Approach Before and After Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems’, International Conference ‘The Emergence of Structuralism and Formalism’, 24-26 June, Charles University Prague, Czech Academy of Sciences, invited speaker, 26 June.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite: Reflections on Hilbert’s Finitist Proof Theory’, University of Naples Federico II, Department of Statistics and Mathematics, 17 October.
• ‘Verdade, Juizo e Asserção em Frege: Uma Análise Crítica’, Federal University of Ceará, Fortaleza, invited talk in the colloquia series ‘Pensamento, Cognição e Linguagem’, presentation and discussion in Portuguese, 28 October.
• ‘Frege Sobre a Ontologia da Matemática’, Federal University of Maranhão, São Luis (Brazil), presentation and discussion in Portuguese, 31 October.
• ‘The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction I’, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, 3 November.
• ‘The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction II’, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, 4 November.
• ‘Frege e o Deflacionismo’, University of Brasília, Brasília, presentation and discussion in Portuguese, 8 November.
• ‘A Concepção Fregeana do Conceito de Verdade’, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, presentation and discussion in Portuguese, 9 November.
• ‘A Concepção Fregeana do Conceito de Verdade’, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, presentation and discussion in Portuguese, 10 November.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite: ‘On Hilbert’s Formalist Approach Before and After Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems’, Fudan University, Shanghai, 28 November.
• ‘The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction’, Fudan University, Shanghai, 29 November.
• ‘Truth, Judgement and Assertion’, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 30 November.
• ‘Truth, Judgement and Assertion’, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou (China), 2 December.
• ‘Wittgenstein and Frege on Identity’, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 5 December.
• ‘Frege, Wittgenstein and Russell on Identity’, Sun-Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China), 7 December.
• ‘Deflationism About Truth’, Fudan University, Shanghai, 8 December.
• ‘Frege’s Puzzle About Identity’, Fudan University, Shanghai, 8 December.
• Philosophical/Logical Colloquium, Fudan University, Shanghai, 8 December.

2017

• ‘Truth and Judgement in Frege’, University of Messina, 22 March.
• ‘Frege: The True and what might be the truth about is true’, University of Torino, 6 April.
• ‘The Finite and the Infinite: Reflections on Hilbert’s Finitist Metamathematics (1922-1939)’, Proof Theory Afternoon with Mario Piazza, Guiseppe Graziani, Ulrich Kohlenbach, Carlo Nicolai, Matthias Schirn, invited speaker, University Chieti-Pescara, 11 April.
• ‘Frege: The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction’, Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 11 May (postponed to 2019).
• ‘Frege: The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction’, University of Paderborn, colloquium on the occasion of Christian Thiel’s 80th birthday, invited speaker, 21 July.
• ‘Frege: The Power and the Limits of Logical Abstraction’, Beijing Normal University, 9 October.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Peking University, 10 October.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 13 October.
• ‘Frege on The True and What Might Be the Truth About “Is True”’, Tongji University, Shanghai, 17 October.
• ‘Second-Order Abstraction Before and After Russell’s Paradox’, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 19 October.

2018

• ‘El rompecabezas del concepto de identidad’, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, 17 April.
• ‘Analyticity, Justification and Self-Evidence’, University of Warsaw, 15 May.
• ‘Analyticity, Justification and Self-Evidence’, University of Lodz, 16 May.
• ‘The Semantics of Value-Range Terms and Frege’s Fundamental Problem of Arithmetic’, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas (IIF), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), 3 September.
• ‘Problemas especiales en Frege’s Die Grundlagen y Grundgesetze’, talk and colloquium, IIF, UNAM, 11 September.
• ‘Problemas especiales en la filosofía del lenguaje de Frege’, talk and colloquium, IIF, UNAM, 11 September.

2019

• ‘Verdad, Juicio y Aserción’, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, presentation and discussion in Spanish, 18 March, IV Jornada de Filosofía de la Mente, invited speaker.
• ‘Verdad, Juicio y Aserción’, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, presentation and discussion in Spanish, 20 March.
• ‘Verdad, Juicio y Aserción’, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, presentation and discussion in Spanish, 21 March.
• ‘Remarks on the Positions of Realism and Anti-Realism in Philosophy’, World Congress on Humanities and Social Sciences in Paris, 16-17 May, invited speaker.
• ‘Frege on Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry’, SCON International Convention on Astro Physics and Particle Physics, Amsterdam, 23-24 May, invited speaker.
• ‘Truth and Judgement’, 14th Annual International Conference on Philosophy, Athens, 27-28 May, invited speaker.

2020

• ‘The Global Repercussions of Climate Change from the Point of View of a Philosopher’, SCON Global Summit on Environmental Science and Climate Change, 2-3 June, Barcelona, invited speaker.