James Franklin (philosopher)

James Franklin, Australian historian of ideas and philosopher, was born in 1953 in Sydney, Australia, and educated at St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill, NSW. His undergraduate work was at the University of Sydney (1971–74), where he attended St John's College and he was influenced by philosophers David Stove and David Armstrong. He completed his PhD in 1981 at University of Warwick, on algebraic groups. Since 1981 he has taught in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of New South Wales.

His research areas include the structuralist philosophy of mathematics and the 'formal sciences' (he is the founder of the Sydney School in the philosophy of mathematics), Australian Catholic history, the parallel between ethics and mathematics (work for which he received the 2005 Eureka Prize for Research in Ethics), restraint, the quantification of rights in applied ethics, and the analysis of extreme risks. Franklin is the literary executor of David Stove.

In 2008 he set up the [http://www.indigenousviolence.org Australian Database of Indigenous Violence] .

See also

* Continuity thesis
* Formal science

Publications

Franklin wrote several books and articles:
* 1996, "Proof in Mathematics: An Introduction" ISBN 978-1-8761-9200-6, originally published as "Introduction to Proofs in Mathematics", in 1988.
* 2001, "The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal" ISBN 978-0-8018-7109-2;
* 2003, "Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia" ISBN 978-1-8764-9208-3;
* 2006, "Catholic Values and Australian Realities" ISBN 978-0-9758-0154-3;
* 2007, "Life to the Full: Rights and Social Justice in Australia" (edited) ISBN 978-1-921421-00-6

Articles, a selection:
* 1994, " [http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/philosophersstone.pdf The formal sciences discover the philosophers’stone] ", in: "Studies in History and Philosophy of Science", Volume 25, No. 4, 513–533, Elsevier Science Ltd.
* 2000, " [http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/18/jun00/kuhn.htm Thomas Kuhn's irrationalism] ", in: "The New Criterion", Volume 18, No. 10, June 2000.
* 2000, " [http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/image.html Diagrammatic reasoning and modelling in the imagination: the secret weapons of the Scientific Revolution] ", in: "1543 and All That: Image and Word, Change and Continuity in the Proto-Scientific Revolution", ed. G. Freeland & A. Corones, Dordrecht: Kluwer, 53-115.
* 2003, " [http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/context.pdf The representation of context: ideas from artificial intelligence] in: "Law, Probability and Risk 2", 191-199.
* 2006, " [http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/18c.html Chapter on 'Artifice and the natural world: Mathematics, logic, technology'] ", in: "Cambridge History of Eighteenth Century Philosophy", ed. K. Haakonssen, Cambridge, 2006, 817-853.

External links

* [http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/ James Franklin home page]
* [http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/structmath.html The "Sydney School" in the philosophy of mathematics]