The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk by Bob Hale (University of Sheffield) on 'The problem of mathematical objects' 5.30 PM, Tuesday, 13 November 2007, Zrinyi 14 building, Room 412 ABSTRACT The problem of mathematical objects is the problem of explaining how a belief in the existence of an infinity of natural numbers, an uncountable infinity of real numbers, etc., is to be justified. I am going to discuss only one small, but fundamental, part of the problem-whether we can be justified in believing that there is a denumerable infinity of natural numbers, or objects of any other kind. I shall consider two broad approaches to this problem. What I shall call object-based approaches try to argue directly that we can have access to, or knowledge of, an at least potentially infinite sequence of objects. Property-based approaches, by contrast, argue indirectly for an infinity of objects, in the sense that our access to an infinite sequence of objects is seen as dependent on an underlying infinity of properties. I shall defend a particular approach of the latter kind. Kriszta Biber Department Coordinator Philosophy Department Tel: 36-1-327-3806 Fax: 36-1-327-3072 E-mail: biberk(a)ceu.hu