The video introduces the Aristotelian realist alternative to Platonism and nominalism in the phil... more The video introduces the Aristotelian realist alternative to Platonism and nominalism in the philosophy of mathematics, based on James Franklin's book, An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the Science of Quantity and Structure. This philosophy holds that mathematics is as much a science of the real world as biology and sociology are - it deals with aspects of physical (and other non-abstract) reality such as symmetry, continuity, complexity and pattern.
This short biography, in Connor Court's series of Australian Biographical Monographs, emphasises ... more This short biography, in Connor Court's series of Australian Biographical Monographs, emphasises Arthur Calwell's success as Australia's first Minister for Immigration (1945-49). His acceptance of over 170,000 Eastern European Displaced Persons began the transformation of Australia into a multicultural nation.
Catholic Thought and Catholic Action (Connor Court Publishing), 2023
Collection of articles on Australian Catholic history, from the first officially allowed priest i... more Collection of articles on Australian Catholic history, from the first officially allowed priest in 1803 to the present day. The Catholic quarter of the Australian population have been driven by a unique vision of how humans fit in God’s universe and of how objective ethics should inform individual and collective action. Following Jesus’ command to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth”, Australian Catholics have worked hard to reform their own souls and Australian society. In this wide-ranging volume, Core Catholic ideas have played out and motivated action across many fields of endeavour – remote area missions, virtuous rural communities, religious life, multicultural refugee programs, Labor politics, Magdalen laundries, Catholic philosophy. He brings to life the colourful characters behind the action, like F.X. Gsell, the “Bishop with 150 wives”, pugnacious immigration minister Arthur Calwell, fiery anti-Communist speaker Dr P.J. Ryan and ex-nun memoirist Cecilia Inglis. Saints and sinners, they transformed Australian society in directions it would not otherwise have moved.
, photographer Ted Hood. (State Library of New South Wales, https:// collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/rec... more , photographer Ted Hood. (State Library of New South Wales, https:// collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nM7BVKKY).
The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere firework. T... more The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere firework. The moral difference is grounded in the nature of humans: humans have intrinsic worth, a worth that makes their fate really matter. This is the worth that the Australian philosopher James Franklin proposes as the foundation of ethics. In The Worth of Persons he explains that ethics in the usual sense of right and wrong actions, rights and virtues, and how to live a good life, is founded on something more basic that is not itself about actions, namely the worth of persons. Human moral worth arises from certain properties that distinguish humans from the rest of creation (though some animals share a lesser degree of those properties): rationality, consciousness, the ability to act for reasons, emotional structure and love, individuality. This complex package makes humans the "piece of work" of which Hamlet says, “How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty." The Worth of Persons establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective and immune to relativist attacks because it is based on the metaphysical truth about humans.
An Aristotelian Philosophy of Mathematics breaks the impasse between Platonist and nominalist vie... more An Aristotelian Philosophy of Mathematics breaks the impasse between Platonist and nominalist views of mathematics. Neither a study of abstract objects nor a mere language or logic, mathematics is a science of real aspects of the world as much as biology is. For the first time, a philosophy of mathematics puts applied mathematics at the centre. Quantitative aspects of the world such as ratios of heights, and structural ones such as symmetry and continuity, are parts of the physical world and are objects of mathematics. Though some mathematical structures such as infinities may be too big to be realized in fact, all of them are capable of being realized. Informed by the author's background in both philosophy and mathematics, but keeping to simple examples, the book shows how infant perception of patterns is extended by visualization and proof to the vast edifice of modern pure and applied mathematical knowledge.
Archbishop Mannix was Australia’s most famous churchman, its most famous Irishman, one of its gre... more Archbishop Mannix was Australia’s most famous churchman, its most famous Irishman, one of its great troublemakers. As Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne from the First World War to the Nineteen-Sixties, he was a tribal leader and political figure as much as a spiritual leader.
A very public figure, equally loved and hated. But privately an enigma. The REAL Archbishop Mannix: from the sources, reveals Mannix through his own words, his own actions and the actions taken against him.”
Arriving in San Francisco in June 1920, on his way to Rome to call on the Pope, Mannix wasted no time in making inflammatory remarks about the English. Addressing the Catholic summer school at Plattsburg, New York, he said, “There is no use mincing words-Ireland is ruled by an alien Government. England was your enemy; she is your enemy today; she will be your enemy for all time.”
Following his arrest at sea on his way to Ireland, he said, “Since the Jutland battle, the British Navy has not scored a success comparable to the capture of the Archbishop of Melbourne, and not a single British sailor had lost his life. It has rendered the British Government the laughing stock of the world. I still claim the right to go to Ireland and intend to press the claim by any means in my power”.
On a visit to the workers at Broken Hill in 1922, Mannix said, “Let the Church approve no social order … in which there is a great discrepancy between the luxury and wealth of a privileged few, and the wretchedness and material indigence of the many" and earlier, " The work before the Catholic Laborites is to capture the Labor machine.”
He strongly held the view that, “When a man becomes a priest he does not cease to be a citizen, he has a right to his own opinions like other citizens.”
This is a small (98 page) textbook designed to teach mathematics and computer science students th... more This is a small (98 page) textbook designed to teach mathematics and computer science students the basics of how to read and construct proofs.
Why do students take the instruction "prove" in examinations to mean "go to the next question"? Because they have not been shown the simple techniques of how to do it. Mathematicians meanwhile generate a mystique of proof, as if it requires an inborn and unteachable genius. True, creating research-level proofs does require talent; but reading and understanding the proof that the square of an even number is even is within the capacity of most mortals.
Proof in Mathematics: an Introduction takes a straightforward, no nonsense approach to explaining the core technique of mathematics.
"Mathematics teaches you to think" is often an empty marketing slogan. With this book, it can become a reality.
To scientists, the tsunami of relativism, scepticism, and postmodernism that washed through the h... more To scientists, the tsunami of relativism, scepticism, and postmodernism that washed through the humanities in the twentieth century was all water off a duck’s back. Science remained committed to objectivity and continued to deliver remarkable discoveries and improvements in technology.
In What Science Knows, the Australian philosopher and mathematician James Franklin explains in captivating and straightforward prose how science works its magic. He begins with an account of the nature of evidence, where science imitates but extends commonsense and legal reasoning in basing conclusions solidly on inductive reasoning from facts.
After a brief survey of the furniture of the world as science sees it–including causes, laws, dispositions and force fields as well as material things–Franklin reveals colorful examples of discoveries in the natural, mathematical, and social sciences and the reasons for believing them. He examines the limits of science, giving special attention both to mysteries that may be solved by science, such as the origin of life, and those that may in principle be beyond the reach of science, such as the meaning of ethics.
What Science Knows will appeal to anyone who wants a sound, readable, and well-paced introduction to the intellectual edifice that is science. On the other hand, it will not please the enemies of science, whose willful misunderstandings of scientific method and the relation of evidence to conclusions Franklin mercilessly exposes.
The great majority of Catholics are lay, and their story is the main part of Catholic history eve... more The great majority of Catholics are lay, and their story is the main part of Catholic history even though priests and religious have a special leadership and sacramental role. The article surveys the Australian Catholic laity in the last hundred years - their sodalities, their spirituality, their political involvements (especially with the Australian Labor Party and B.A. Santamaria's Movement). It considers the wider role the laity have taken since the Second Vatican Council, especially in educational and charitable work, and in intellectual activities in the wider society.
Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 2022
Sydney Catholics in the mid-twentieth century were organised into a large number of active and ef... more Sydney Catholics in the mid-twentieth century were organised into a large number of active and effective associations, from parish sodalities and professional guilds up to the Cahill government. Parish-based and larger organisations supplied a body of people accustomed to uniformity of beliefs and to coordinated action in support of those beliefs, easily mobilised against Communism and in favour of Catholic moral and political positions. Pragmatic, informed by implicit moral views rather than explicit theory, and clerically controlled, Catholic Action in Sydney proved more able than its Melbourne counterpart in controlling the levers of political power. The heavily Catholic Cahill government and its police force, spearheaded by the Vice Squad, built on this organisational infrastructure to implement in law and policing a conservative moral agenda, including a vigorous pursuit of homosexuals and the music conductor and sexual experimenter Sir Eugene Goossens.
The reasons for freedom of religion support also freedom from offensive efforts at religious conv... more The reasons for freedom of religion support also freedom from offensive efforts at religious conversion; they also support the rights of children deprived of understanding of the spiritual side of life to have an introduction to religious insights
Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 2016
The paper gives an overview of the Catholic Church’s missionary efforts to the Aboriginal peoples... more The paper gives an overview of the Catholic Church’s missionary efforts to the Aboriginal peoples of northern and western Australia up to 1970. It aims to understand the interaction of missions with native culture and the resulting hybrid culture created on the missions. It describes the differing points of view of missionaries and the generations who grew up on the missions.
It is argued that the culture created on the missions by the joint efforts of missionaries and local peoples was by and large a positive phase in Australian black history, between the violence of pre-contact times and the dysfunctionality of recent decades. Criticisms of the missions are considered, such as those arising from their opposition to aspects of native culture and from their involvement in child removals.
While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ev... more While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ever wider and better appreciated, ethical reflection on mathematics has remained primitive. We review the somewhat disconnected suggestions of commentators in recent decades with a view to piecing together a coherent approach to ethics in mathematics. Calls for a Hippocratic Oath for mathematicians are examined and it is concluded that while lessons can be learned from the medical profession, the relation of mathematicians to those affected by their work is significantly different. There is something to be learned also from the codes of conduct of cognate but professionalised quantitative disciplines such as engineering and accountancy, as well as from legal principles bearing on professional work. We conclude with recommendations that professional societies in mathematics should sponsor an (international) code of ethics, institutional mission statements for mathematicians and syllabuses of ethics courses for incorporation into mathematics degrees.
The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of ... more The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of the organizing themes of modern mathematics. There are many phenomena that are possible locally but for purely mathematical reasons impossible globally. For example, it is possible to build a spiral staircase that is rising at any given point, but it is impossible to build one that is rising at all points and comes back to where it started. The necessity is mathematically provable, so not subject to exception by divine power. Leibniz’s Theodicy argues that God could improve the universe locally in many ways, but not globally. This paper defends Leibniz, giving positive reasons for believing that there are so many necessary interconnections between goods and evils that God is faced with a choice like the classic Trolley case, where all of the scenarios that could be chosen upfront contain evils, but some more than others. Local changes for the better seem easy to imagine, but a proper understanding of global constraints undermines the initial impression that they can be done without global cost. The paper concludes by explaining how the context of the Leibnizian argument makes it reasonable to pursue the issue of whether there are no worlds better than this one.
The video introduces the Aristotelian realist alternative to Platonism and nominalism in the phil... more The video introduces the Aristotelian realist alternative to Platonism and nominalism in the philosophy of mathematics, based on James Franklin's book, An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematics as the Science of Quantity and Structure. This philosophy holds that mathematics is as much a science of the real world as biology and sociology are - it deals with aspects of physical (and other non-abstract) reality such as symmetry, continuity, complexity and pattern.
This short biography, in Connor Court's series of Australian Biographical Monographs, emphasises ... more This short biography, in Connor Court's series of Australian Biographical Monographs, emphasises Arthur Calwell's success as Australia's first Minister for Immigration (1945-49). His acceptance of over 170,000 Eastern European Displaced Persons began the transformation of Australia into a multicultural nation.
Catholic Thought and Catholic Action (Connor Court Publishing), 2023
Collection of articles on Australian Catholic history, from the first officially allowed priest i... more Collection of articles on Australian Catholic history, from the first officially allowed priest in 1803 to the present day. The Catholic quarter of the Australian population have been driven by a unique vision of how humans fit in God’s universe and of how objective ethics should inform individual and collective action. Following Jesus’ command to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth”, Australian Catholics have worked hard to reform their own souls and Australian society. In this wide-ranging volume, Core Catholic ideas have played out and motivated action across many fields of endeavour – remote area missions, virtuous rural communities, religious life, multicultural refugee programs, Labor politics, Magdalen laundries, Catholic philosophy. He brings to life the colourful characters behind the action, like F.X. Gsell, the “Bishop with 150 wives”, pugnacious immigration minister Arthur Calwell, fiery anti-Communist speaker Dr P.J. Ryan and ex-nun memoirist Cecilia Inglis. Saints and sinners, they transformed Australian society in directions it would not otherwise have moved.
, photographer Ted Hood. (State Library of New South Wales, https:// collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/rec... more , photographer Ted Hood. (State Library of New South Wales, https:// collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/nM7BVKKY).
The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere firework. T... more The death of a person is a tragedy while the explosion of a lifeless galaxy is a mere firework. The moral difference is grounded in the nature of humans: humans have intrinsic worth, a worth that makes their fate really matter. This is the worth that the Australian philosopher James Franklin proposes as the foundation of ethics. In The Worth of Persons he explains that ethics in the usual sense of right and wrong actions, rights and virtues, and how to live a good life, is founded on something more basic that is not itself about actions, namely the worth of persons. Human moral worth arises from certain properties that distinguish humans from the rest of creation (though some animals share a lesser degree of those properties): rationality, consciousness, the ability to act for reasons, emotional structure and love, individuality. This complex package makes humans the "piece of work" of which Hamlet says, “How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty." The Worth of Persons establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective and immune to relativist attacks because it is based on the metaphysical truth about humans.
An Aristotelian Philosophy of Mathematics breaks the impasse between Platonist and nominalist vie... more An Aristotelian Philosophy of Mathematics breaks the impasse between Platonist and nominalist views of mathematics. Neither a study of abstract objects nor a mere language or logic, mathematics is a science of real aspects of the world as much as biology is. For the first time, a philosophy of mathematics puts applied mathematics at the centre. Quantitative aspects of the world such as ratios of heights, and structural ones such as symmetry and continuity, are parts of the physical world and are objects of mathematics. Though some mathematical structures such as infinities may be too big to be realized in fact, all of them are capable of being realized. Informed by the author's background in both philosophy and mathematics, but keeping to simple examples, the book shows how infant perception of patterns is extended by visualization and proof to the vast edifice of modern pure and applied mathematical knowledge.
Archbishop Mannix was Australia’s most famous churchman, its most famous Irishman, one of its gre... more Archbishop Mannix was Australia’s most famous churchman, its most famous Irishman, one of its great troublemakers. As Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne from the First World War to the Nineteen-Sixties, he was a tribal leader and political figure as much as a spiritual leader.
A very public figure, equally loved and hated. But privately an enigma. The REAL Archbishop Mannix: from the sources, reveals Mannix through his own words, his own actions and the actions taken against him.”
Arriving in San Francisco in June 1920, on his way to Rome to call on the Pope, Mannix wasted no time in making inflammatory remarks about the English. Addressing the Catholic summer school at Plattsburg, New York, he said, “There is no use mincing words-Ireland is ruled by an alien Government. England was your enemy; she is your enemy today; she will be your enemy for all time.”
Following his arrest at sea on his way to Ireland, he said, “Since the Jutland battle, the British Navy has not scored a success comparable to the capture of the Archbishop of Melbourne, and not a single British sailor had lost his life. It has rendered the British Government the laughing stock of the world. I still claim the right to go to Ireland and intend to press the claim by any means in my power”.
On a visit to the workers at Broken Hill in 1922, Mannix said, “Let the Church approve no social order … in which there is a great discrepancy between the luxury and wealth of a privileged few, and the wretchedness and material indigence of the many" and earlier, " The work before the Catholic Laborites is to capture the Labor machine.”
He strongly held the view that, “When a man becomes a priest he does not cease to be a citizen, he has a right to his own opinions like other citizens.”
This is a small (98 page) textbook designed to teach mathematics and computer science students th... more This is a small (98 page) textbook designed to teach mathematics and computer science students the basics of how to read and construct proofs.
Why do students take the instruction "prove" in examinations to mean "go to the next question"? Because they have not been shown the simple techniques of how to do it. Mathematicians meanwhile generate a mystique of proof, as if it requires an inborn and unteachable genius. True, creating research-level proofs does require talent; but reading and understanding the proof that the square of an even number is even is within the capacity of most mortals.
Proof in Mathematics: an Introduction takes a straightforward, no nonsense approach to explaining the core technique of mathematics.
"Mathematics teaches you to think" is often an empty marketing slogan. With this book, it can become a reality.
To scientists, the tsunami of relativism, scepticism, and postmodernism that washed through the h... more To scientists, the tsunami of relativism, scepticism, and postmodernism that washed through the humanities in the twentieth century was all water off a duck’s back. Science remained committed to objectivity and continued to deliver remarkable discoveries and improvements in technology.
In What Science Knows, the Australian philosopher and mathematician James Franklin explains in captivating and straightforward prose how science works its magic. He begins with an account of the nature of evidence, where science imitates but extends commonsense and legal reasoning in basing conclusions solidly on inductive reasoning from facts.
After a brief survey of the furniture of the world as science sees it–including causes, laws, dispositions and force fields as well as material things–Franklin reveals colorful examples of discoveries in the natural, mathematical, and social sciences and the reasons for believing them. He examines the limits of science, giving special attention both to mysteries that may be solved by science, such as the origin of life, and those that may in principle be beyond the reach of science, such as the meaning of ethics.
What Science Knows will appeal to anyone who wants a sound, readable, and well-paced introduction to the intellectual edifice that is science. On the other hand, it will not please the enemies of science, whose willful misunderstandings of scientific method and the relation of evidence to conclusions Franklin mercilessly exposes.
The great majority of Catholics are lay, and their story is the main part of Catholic history eve... more The great majority of Catholics are lay, and their story is the main part of Catholic history even though priests and religious have a special leadership and sacramental role. The article surveys the Australian Catholic laity in the last hundred years - their sodalities, their spirituality, their political involvements (especially with the Australian Labor Party and B.A. Santamaria's Movement). It considers the wider role the laity have taken since the Second Vatican Council, especially in educational and charitable work, and in intellectual activities in the wider society.
Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 2022
Sydney Catholics in the mid-twentieth century were organised into a large number of active and ef... more Sydney Catholics in the mid-twentieth century were organised into a large number of active and effective associations, from parish sodalities and professional guilds up to the Cahill government. Parish-based and larger organisations supplied a body of people accustomed to uniformity of beliefs and to coordinated action in support of those beliefs, easily mobilised against Communism and in favour of Catholic moral and political positions. Pragmatic, informed by implicit moral views rather than explicit theory, and clerically controlled, Catholic Action in Sydney proved more able than its Melbourne counterpart in controlling the levers of political power. The heavily Catholic Cahill government and its police force, spearheaded by the Vice Squad, built on this organisational infrastructure to implement in law and policing a conservative moral agenda, including a vigorous pursuit of homosexuals and the music conductor and sexual experimenter Sir Eugene Goossens.
The reasons for freedom of religion support also freedom from offensive efforts at religious conv... more The reasons for freedom of religion support also freedom from offensive efforts at religious conversion; they also support the rights of children deprived of understanding of the spiritual side of life to have an introduction to religious insights
Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 2016
The paper gives an overview of the Catholic Church’s missionary efforts to the Aboriginal peoples... more The paper gives an overview of the Catholic Church’s missionary efforts to the Aboriginal peoples of northern and western Australia up to 1970. It aims to understand the interaction of missions with native culture and the resulting hybrid culture created on the missions. It describes the differing points of view of missionaries and the generations who grew up on the missions.
It is argued that the culture created on the missions by the joint efforts of missionaries and local peoples was by and large a positive phase in Australian black history, between the violence of pre-contact times and the dysfunctionality of recent decades. Criticisms of the missions are considered, such as those arising from their opposition to aspects of native culture and from their involvement in child removals.
While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ev... more While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ever wider and better appreciated, ethical reflection on mathematics has remained primitive. We review the somewhat disconnected suggestions of commentators in recent decades with a view to piecing together a coherent approach to ethics in mathematics. Calls for a Hippocratic Oath for mathematicians are examined and it is concluded that while lessons can be learned from the medical profession, the relation of mathematicians to those affected by their work is significantly different. There is something to be learned also from the codes of conduct of cognate but professionalised quantitative disciplines such as engineering and accountancy, as well as from legal principles bearing on professional work. We conclude with recommendations that professional societies in mathematics should sponsor an (international) code of ethics, institutional mission statements for mathematicians and syllabuses of ethics courses for incorporation into mathematics degrees.
The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of ... more The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of the organizing themes of modern mathematics. There are many phenomena that are possible locally but for purely mathematical reasons impossible globally. For example, it is possible to build a spiral staircase that is rising at any given point, but it is impossible to build one that is rising at all points and comes back to where it started. The necessity is mathematically provable, so not subject to exception by divine power. Leibniz’s Theodicy argues that God could improve the universe locally in many ways, but not globally. This paper defends Leibniz, giving positive reasons for believing that there are so many necessary interconnections between goods and evils that God is faced with a choice like the classic Trolley case, where all of the scenarios that could be chosen upfront contain evils, but some more than others. Local changes for the better seem easy to imagine, but a proper understanding of global constraints undermines the initial impression that they can be done without global cost. The paper concludes by explaining how the context of the Leibnizian argument makes it reasonable to pursue the issue of whether there are no worlds better than this one.
The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of ... more The essential idea of Leibniz’s Theodicy was little understood in his time but has become one of the organizing themes of modern mathematics. There are many phenomena that are possible locally but for purely mathematical reasons impossible globally. For example, it is possible to build a spiral staircase that is rising at any given point, but it is impossible to build one that is rising at all points and comes back to where it started. The necessity is mathematically provable, so not subject to exception by divine power. Leibniz’s Theodicy argues that God could improve the universe locally in many ways, but not globally. This paper defends Leibniz, giving positive reasons for believing that there are so many necessary interconnections between goods and evils that God is faced with a choice like the classic Trolley case, where all of the scenarios that could be chosen upfront contain evils, but some more than others. Local changes for the better seem easy to imagine, but a proper understanding of global constraints undermines the initial impression that they can be done without global cost. The paper concludes by explaining how the context of the Leibnizian argument makes it reasonable to pursue the issue of whether there are no worlds better than this one.
The Catholic rural communties of Australia, as portrayed in the poems of "John O'Brien&#... more The Catholic rural communties of Australia, as portrayed in the poems of "John O'Brien's" Around the Boree Log (1921) maintained a distinctive culture - poor, remote, Irish and committed to simple virtues and piety. The article considers the background of the idea of rural virtue, particularly its Catholic version rooted in the piety of European peasant life. It argues that "O'Brien's" picture is substantially true
An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics, 2014
Properties have been supposed to exist for several compelling reasons. 1 They solve the problem o... more Properties have been supposed to exist for several compelling reasons. 1 They solve the problem of "the one over many": how different individuals can, objectively, resemble one another in some respect, such as color. Two pens may be of exactly the same shade of red, or two electrons may be of exactly the same mass. That is explained by there being something, a universal, that is exactly the same and wholly present in both particulars. It is not just a matter of falling under the same concept: two objects could both be truly "not green" without there being a universal "not-green". Only where there is a genuine shared reality is there a universal in common. 2 Admitting the reality of properties allows direct and literal talk about them, as seems to be needed to make sense of statements like "Red resembles orange more than blue." 3 That is a statement about colors, not about the particular things that have the colors-or if it is about the things, it is only about them in respect of their color: red things resemble orange things but not blue things in respect of their color. There is no way to avoid reference to the colors themselves.
David Armstrong (1926-2014) was much the most internationally successful philosopher to come from... more David Armstrong (1926-2014) was much the most internationally successful philosopher to come from Sydney. His life moved from a privileged Empire childhood and student of John Anderson to acclaimed elder statesman of realist philosophy. His philosophy developed from an Andersonian realist inheritance to major contributions on materialist theory of mind and the theory of universals. His views on several other topics such as religion and ethics are surveyed briefly. Life David Armstrong was the son of John Malet Armstrong, a Commodore in the Royal Australian Navy. While serving on HMAS Australia in the Pacific theatre in World War II, Armstrong senior assumed command of the ship after the captain was killed in a kamikaze attack. 1 David's mother came from a well-off Jersey family and her father was Rector of Exeter College, Oxford. His memoir, A Jerseyman at Oxford, is said by David to be a good read but rather self-satisfied. David attended the Dragon School, the celebrated preparatory school in Oxford, and later Geelong Grammar, where he was taught history by Manning Clark. He joined the Navy as ordinary seaman in 1944-6 but was too late to see active service. He comments "I found the Lower Deck a humane and civilised environment after life in a boarding school". 2 He served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, and believed that Japan was so devastated that it would not recover in his lifetime. When it did, he concluded that what matters to a people is that which they have in their heads, and their culture. He then studied philosophy at Sydney University, where he met two of the most important people in his life, his teacher Professor John Anderson, and his fellow philosophy student and friend, David Stove. The relationship with Anderson was not entirely a happy one, though David was grateful to have learned how to do philosophy and what the 1
There are many reasons for objecting to quantifying the ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ standard ... more There are many reasons for objecting to quantifying the ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ standard of criminal law as a percentage probability. They are divided into ethical and policy reasons, on the one hand, and reasons arising from the nature of logical probabilities, on the other. It is argued that these reasons are substantial and suggest that the criminal standard of proof should not be given a precise number. But those reasons do not rule out a minimal imprecise number. ‘Well above 80%’ is suggested as a standard, implying that any attempt by a prosecutor or jury to take the ‘proof beyond reasonable doubt’ standard to be 80% or less should be ruled out as a matter of law.
While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ev... more While the consequences of mathematically-based software, algorithms and strategies have become ever wider and better appreciated, ethical reflection on mathematics has remained primitive. We review the somewhat disconnected suggestions of commentators in recent decades with a view to piecing together a coherent approach to ethics in mathematics. Calls for a Hippocratic Oath for mathematicians are examined and it is concluded that while lessons can be learned from the medical profession, the relation of mathematicians to those affected by their work is significantly different. There is something to be learned also from the codes of conduct of cognate but professionalised quantitative disciplines such as engineering and accountancy, as well as from legal principles bearing on professional work. We conclude with recommendations that professional societies in mathematics should sponsor an (international) code of ethics, institutional mission statements for mathematicians and syllabuses ...
The problem arises very generally, whenever statistical evidence is applied to an individual case... more The problem arises very generally, whenever statistical evidence is applied to an individual case. The case, Nixon, is a member of two different “reference classes”—the class of Quakers and the class of Republicans—and in these classes the frequency of the attribute or feature to be predicted—i.e., being a pacifist—differs. How then can we decide how the statistical evidence bears on the case? Should we attempt to find a best, most relevant, reference class? Or should we attempt to combine evidence from the various reference classes of which the case is a member, and if so, how? In “A Practical Solution to the Reference Class Problem,” Edward K. Cheng usefully surveys the ways in which the problem arises in legal contexts. In United States v. Shonubi, sentencing guidelines required an estimate of how much heroin Charles Shonubi, a Nigerian drug
Among worldviews, in addition to the options of materialist atheism, pantheism and personal theis... more Among worldviews, in addition to the options of materialist atheism, pantheism and personal theism, there exists a fourth, “local emergentism”. It holds that there are no gods, nor does the universe overall have divine aspects or any purpose. But locally, in our region of space and time, the properties of matter have given rise to entities which are completely different from matter in kind and to a degree god-like: consciousnesses with rational powers and intrinsic worth. The emergentist option is compared with the standard alternatives and the arguments for and against it are laid out. It is argued that, among options in the philosophy of religion, it involves the minimal reworking of the manifest image of common sense. Hence it deserves a place at the table in arguments as to the overall nature of the universe.
The objective Bayesian view of proof (or logical probability, or evidential support) is explained... more The objective Bayesian view of proof (or logical probability, or evidential support) is explained and defended: that the relation of evidence to hypothesis (in legal trials, science etc) is a strictly logical one, comparable to deductive logic. This view is distinguished from the thesis, which had some popularity in law in the 1980s, that legal evidence ought to be evaluated using numerical probabilities and formulas. While numbers are not always useful, a central role is played in uncertain reasoning by the 'proportional syllogism', or argument from frequencies, such as 'nearly all aeroplane flights arrive safely, so my flight is very likely to arrive safely'. Such arguments raise the 'problem of the reference class', arising from the fact that an individual case may be a member of many different classes in which frequencies differ. For example, if 15 per cent of swans are black and 60 per cent of fauna in the zoo is black, what should I think about the like...
The "Sydney School" defends an Aristotelian realist philosophy of mathematics. Contrary to Platon... more The "Sydney School" defends an Aristotelian realist philosophy of mathematics. Contrary to Platonist and nominalist philosophies, it take mathematics to be the science of certain aspects of the real (including physical) world: quantity and structure.
The virtue of temperance and self-control has had a low profile since the 1960s. But it is a nece... more The virtue of temperance and self-control has had a low profile since the 1960s. But it is a necessary part of being a whole person who can take ethical action and live a healthy and coherent life. The project looks at the history of self-control in Australia and the present need for it in areas such as health, anti-drug campaigns and indigenous violence.
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 28(3): 309-340, 2018
Programs of drug testing welfare recipients are increasingly common in US states and have been co... more Programs of drug testing welfare recipients are increasingly common in US states and have been considered elsewhere. Though often intensely debated, such programs are complicated to evaluate because their aims are ambiguousaims like saving money may be in tension with aims like referring people to treatment. We assess such programs using a proportionality approach, which requires that for ethical acceptability a practice must be: reasonably likely to meet its aims, sufficiently important in purpose as to outweigh harms incurred, and lower in costs than feasible alternatives. In the light of empirical findings, we argue that the programs fail the three requirements. Pursuing recreational drug users is not important in the light of costs incurred, while dependent users who may require referral are usually identifiable without testing and typically need a broader approach than one focussing on drugs. Drug testing of welfare recipients is therefore not ethically acceptable policy. Programs of drug testing welfare recipients have been introduced in a number of states of the USA and in New Zealand. The practice has also been proposed but not implemented in Canada and the United Kingdom (Wincup 2014). Recently, legislation was prepared to introduce
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Books by James Franklin
The Catholic quarter of the Australian population have been driven by a unique vision of how humans fit in God’s universe and of how objective ethics should inform individual and collective action. Following Jesus’ command to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth”, Australian Catholics have worked hard to reform their own souls and Australian society. In this wide-ranging volume, Core Catholic ideas have played out and motivated action across many fields of endeavour – remote area missions, virtuous rural communities, religious life, multicultural refugee programs, Labor politics, Magdalen laundries, Catholic philosophy. He brings to life the colourful characters behind the action, like F.X. Gsell, the “Bishop with 150 wives”, pugnacious immigration minister Arthur Calwell, fiery anti-Communist speaker Dr P.J. Ryan and ex-nun memoirist Cecilia Inglis. Saints and sinners, they transformed Australian society in directions it would not otherwise have moved.
The Worth of Persons establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective and immune to relativist attacks because it is based on the metaphysical truth about humans.
A very public figure, equally loved and hated. But privately an enigma. The REAL Archbishop Mannix: from the sources, reveals Mannix through his own words, his own actions and the actions taken against him.”
Arriving in San Francisco in June 1920, on his way to Rome to call on the Pope, Mannix wasted no time in making inflammatory remarks about the English. Addressing the Catholic summer school at Plattsburg, New York, he said, “There is no use mincing words-Ireland is ruled by an alien Government. England was your enemy; she is your enemy today; she will be your enemy for all time.”
Following his arrest at sea on his way to Ireland, he said, “Since the Jutland battle, the British Navy has not scored a success comparable to the capture of the Archbishop of Melbourne, and not a single British sailor had lost his life. It has rendered the British Government the laughing stock of the world. I still claim the right to go to Ireland and intend to press the claim by any means in my power”.
On a visit to the workers at Broken Hill in 1922, Mannix said, “Let the Church approve no social order … in which there is a great discrepancy between the luxury and wealth of a privileged few, and the wretchedness and material indigence of the many" and earlier, " The work before the Catholic Laborites is to capture the Labor machine.”
He strongly held the view that, “When a man becomes a priest he does not cease to be a citizen, he has a right to his own opinions like other citizens.”
Why do students take the instruction "prove" in examinations to mean "go to the next question"? Because they have not been shown the simple techniques of how to do it. Mathematicians meanwhile generate a mystique of proof, as if it requires an inborn and unteachable genius. True, creating research-level proofs does require talent; but reading and understanding the proof that the square of an even number is even is within the capacity of most mortals.
Proof in Mathematics: an Introduction takes a straightforward, no nonsense approach to explaining the core technique of mathematics.
"Mathematics teaches you to think" is often an empty marketing slogan. With this book, it can become a reality.
In What Science Knows, the Australian philosopher and mathematician James Franklin explains in captivating and straightforward prose how science works its magic. He begins with an account of the nature of evidence, where science imitates but extends commonsense and legal reasoning in basing conclusions solidly on inductive reasoning from facts.
After a brief survey of the furniture of the world as science sees it–including causes, laws, dispositions and force fields as well as material things–Franklin reveals colorful examples of discoveries in the natural, mathematical, and social sciences and the reasons for believing them. He examines the limits of science, giving special attention both to mysteries that may be solved by science, such as the origin of life, and those that may in principle be beyond the reach of science, such as the meaning of ethics.
What Science Knows will appeal to anyone who wants a sound, readable, and well-paced introduction to the intellectual edifice that is science. On the other hand, it will not please the enemies of science, whose willful misunderstandings of scientific method and the relation of evidence to conclusions Franklin mercilessly exposes.
Papers by James Franklin
It is argued that the culture created on the missions by the joint efforts of missionaries and local peoples was by and large a positive phase in Australian black history, between the violence of pre-contact times and the dysfunctionality of recent decades. Criticisms of the missions are considered, such as those arising from their opposition to aspects of native culture and from their involvement in child removals.
The Catholic quarter of the Australian population have been driven by a unique vision of how humans fit in God’s universe and of how objective ethics should inform individual and collective action. Following Jesus’ command to be witnesses “to the ends of the earth”, Australian Catholics have worked hard to reform their own souls and Australian society. In this wide-ranging volume, Core Catholic ideas have played out and motivated action across many fields of endeavour – remote area missions, virtuous rural communities, religious life, multicultural refugee programs, Labor politics, Magdalen laundries, Catholic philosophy. He brings to life the colourful characters behind the action, like F.X. Gsell, the “Bishop with 150 wives”, pugnacious immigration minister Arthur Calwell, fiery anti-Communist speaker Dr P.J. Ryan and ex-nun memoirist Cecilia Inglis. Saints and sinners, they transformed Australian society in directions it would not otherwise have moved.
The Worth of Persons establishes a foundation for ethics in the equal worth of persons, which makes ethics absolutely objective and immune to relativist attacks because it is based on the metaphysical truth about humans.
A very public figure, equally loved and hated. But privately an enigma. The REAL Archbishop Mannix: from the sources, reveals Mannix through his own words, his own actions and the actions taken against him.”
Arriving in San Francisco in June 1920, on his way to Rome to call on the Pope, Mannix wasted no time in making inflammatory remarks about the English. Addressing the Catholic summer school at Plattsburg, New York, he said, “There is no use mincing words-Ireland is ruled by an alien Government. England was your enemy; she is your enemy today; she will be your enemy for all time.”
Following his arrest at sea on his way to Ireland, he said, “Since the Jutland battle, the British Navy has not scored a success comparable to the capture of the Archbishop of Melbourne, and not a single British sailor had lost his life. It has rendered the British Government the laughing stock of the world. I still claim the right to go to Ireland and intend to press the claim by any means in my power”.
On a visit to the workers at Broken Hill in 1922, Mannix said, “Let the Church approve no social order … in which there is a great discrepancy between the luxury and wealth of a privileged few, and the wretchedness and material indigence of the many" and earlier, " The work before the Catholic Laborites is to capture the Labor machine.”
He strongly held the view that, “When a man becomes a priest he does not cease to be a citizen, he has a right to his own opinions like other citizens.”
Why do students take the instruction "prove" in examinations to mean "go to the next question"? Because they have not been shown the simple techniques of how to do it. Mathematicians meanwhile generate a mystique of proof, as if it requires an inborn and unteachable genius. True, creating research-level proofs does require talent; but reading and understanding the proof that the square of an even number is even is within the capacity of most mortals.
Proof in Mathematics: an Introduction takes a straightforward, no nonsense approach to explaining the core technique of mathematics.
"Mathematics teaches you to think" is often an empty marketing slogan. With this book, it can become a reality.
In What Science Knows, the Australian philosopher and mathematician James Franklin explains in captivating and straightforward prose how science works its magic. He begins with an account of the nature of evidence, where science imitates but extends commonsense and legal reasoning in basing conclusions solidly on inductive reasoning from facts.
After a brief survey of the furniture of the world as science sees it–including causes, laws, dispositions and force fields as well as material things–Franklin reveals colorful examples of discoveries in the natural, mathematical, and social sciences and the reasons for believing them. He examines the limits of science, giving special attention both to mysteries that may be solved by science, such as the origin of life, and those that may in principle be beyond the reach of science, such as the meaning of ethics.
What Science Knows will appeal to anyone who wants a sound, readable, and well-paced introduction to the intellectual edifice that is science. On the other hand, it will not please the enemies of science, whose willful misunderstandings of scientific method and the relation of evidence to conclusions Franklin mercilessly exposes.
It is argued that the culture created on the missions by the joint efforts of missionaries and local peoples was by and large a positive phase in Australian black history, between the violence of pre-contact times and the dysfunctionality of recent decades. Criticisms of the missions are considered, such as those arising from their opposition to aspects of native culture and from their involvement in child removals.