David Corfield

David Corfield is a philosopher specializing in mathematics and psychology. He is the author of Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics (2003), in which he argues that the philosophical implications of mathematics did not stop with Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorems. He has also co-authored a book with Darian Leader about psychosomatic medicine – Why Do People Get Ill? (2007). He joined the University of Kent in September 2007.

He is a member of the informal steering committee of nLab, a wiki-lab for collaborative work on mathematics, physics, and philosophy.

Papers and reviews

• "Assaying Lakatos's Philosophy of Mathematics", Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 28(1), 99–121 (1997).
• "Beyond the Methodology of Mathematical Research Programmes", Philosophia Mathematica 6, 272–301 (1998).
• "Come the Revolution...", critical notice on The Principles of Mathematics Revisited by Jaakko Hintikka, Philosophical Books 39(3), 150–6 (1998).
• "The Importance of Mathematical Conceptualisation", Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 32(3), 507–533 (2001).
• "Bayesianism in Mathematics", in Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.) (2001), 175–201.
• (with J. Williamson), "Bayesianism into the 21st Century", in Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.) (2001), 1–16.
• Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.), Foundations of Bayesianism, Kluwer Applied Logic Series (2001).
• "Argumentation and the Mathematical Process", G. Kampis, L. Kvasz & M. Stöltzner (eds.) Appraising Lakatos: Mathematics, Methodology, and the Man, 115–138. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2002).
• Review of Conceptual Mathematics by F. W. Lawvere and S. Schanuel and A Primer of Infinitesimal Analysis by J. Bell, Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 33B(2), 359–366 (2002).
• "From Mathematics to Psychology: Lacan's missed encounters" in J. Glynos and Y. Stavrakakis (eds.) Lacan and Science, Karnac Books, 179–206 (2002).
• Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics, Cambridge University Press (2003).
• Review of Opening Skinner's Box by Lauren Slater, The Guardian, 27 March 2004.
• Review of M. Krieger (2002) Doing Mathematics. Philosophia Mathematica, 13: 106–111 (2005).
• "Categorification as a Heuristic Device", in D. Gillies and C. Cellucci (eds.) Mathematical Reasoning and Heuristics, King's College Publications (2005).
• Why Do People Get Ill?, Hamish Hamilton (2007).

See also

• Category theory
• Philosophy of mathematics

Further reading

• Philosophy/mathematics group blog "The n-Category Cafe", written by Corfield, John Baez, Urs Schreiber and Alex Hoffnung
• Internet Archive of Corfield's old blog, "Philosophy of Real Mathematics" (last version)
• His psychosomatic medicine blog, "Why Do People Get Ill?"
• Homepage in Tübingen
• His alumnus page at the Max Planck Institut

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