Publications

Brendan Larvor is reader in philosophy and head of the philosophy department at the University of Hertfordshire.

Books

A Philosopher’s Perspective on the UK’s Higher Education: Teaching in the Iron Cage, Cambridge Scholars’ Publishing. 2024

Lakatos: An Introduction, Routledge. 1998.

Articles

(2023) with Gila Hanna and Xiaoheng Yan Human-Machine Collaboration in the Teaching of Proof in Journal of Humanistic Mathematics.

(2022) On the unreasonable reliability of mathematical inference in Synthese.

(2020) with Gila Hanna As Thurston Says? Online in ZDM

(2019) From Euclidean Geometry to Knots and Nets Synthese, 196(7), 2715-2736. [10.1007/s11229-017-1558-x]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1558-x

(2018) Why Scaffolding is the wrong metaphor. Online in Synthese

(2018) Weber and Coyote: polytheism as a practical attitude. In Sophia.

(2016) with Karen François “Cultural and Institutional Inequalities: The case of mathematics education in Flemish schools” Journal of Mathematics and Culture, 10(2), 37-54.

(2016) “Why the naïve Derivation Recipe model cannot explain how mathematicians’ proofs secure mathematical knowledge” Philosophia Mathematica 24(3) 401–404.

with Colin Jakob Rittberg “Imre Lakatos”. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 30-Jul-2014.

“The Mathematical Cultures Network Project” 2012 Journal of Humanistic Mathematics 2 (2): 157-160.

“How to think about informal proofs” 1-Jan-2011 Synthese p. 1-16.

“Frankfurt Counterexample Defused” in Analysis Volume 70, Number 3, July 2010, pp. 506-508.

“Albert Lautman, ou la dialectique dans les mathématiques” in Philosophiques 37/1 (Spring 2010) pp. 75-94. English version “Albert Lautman: Dialectics in Mathematics” in Foundations of the Formal Sciences VII, Bringing Together Philosophy and Sociology of Science, College Publications, London (2011). François, Löwe, Müller, and van Kerkhove (eds) pp. 185-204

“Moral Particularism and Scientific Practice” Metaphilosophy volume 39, no. 5, October
2008

“What can the philosophy of mathematics learn from the history of mathematics?”
Erkenntnis 68/3 (May 2008): 393-407. Special edition ‘Towards a New Epistemology
of Mathematics’ (Buldt, Löwe and Müller eds).

“Proof in C17 Algebra” in Philosophia Scientiae (special issue: Fonder Autrement les Mathématiques) vol. 9 (2005). Reprinted in Perspectives on Mathematical Practices (Springer, 2007, van Kerkhove & van Bendegem eds, vol. 5 of Logic, Epistemology and the Unity of Science).

“The formalising tendency in philosophy and experimental psychology” in Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 2 (4): 337-352, 2003.

“Why did Kuhn’s Structure cause a fuss?” in Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 34/2 pp. 369 – 390 (2003).

“What is Dialectical Philosophy of Mathematics?” in Philosophia Mathematica vol. 9 no. 1 (June 2001).

“Old Maps, Crystal Spheres and the Cartesian Circle” in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal Vol. 22, No. 2. 2001

“Lakatos’ Mathematical Hegelianism” in The Owl of Minerva Vol. 31 no. 1, Fall 1999.

“Lakatos as Historian of Mathematics” in Philosophia Mathematica, vol. 5, no. 1. 1997.

“History, Methodology and Early Algebra” in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science. vol. 8, no. 2. 1994.

“The Owl and the Pussycat” in The Philosophical Quarterly. vol. 44, no. 175. 1994.

“Re-reading Soviet Philosophy: Bakhurst on Ilyenkov” in Studies in Soviet Thought. no. 44. 1992.

Contributions to Books

“The limits of understanding and the understanding of limits: David Hume’s mathematical sources” in Research in History and Philosophy of Mathematics: The CSHPM 2021 Volume. Springer International. (2023)

Larvor, B., & Francois, K. (2018). The concept of Culture in Critical Mathematics Education. In P. Ernest (Ed.), Philosophy of Mathematics Education Today Springer Verlag.

Editorial Introduction to Mathematical Cultures: The London Meetings 2012-2014 Edited collection, Birkhäuser, Basel (2016)

“What are Cultures?” in Cultures of Mathematics and Logic Selected papers from the conference in Guangzhou, China, 9-12 November 2012. Shier Ju, Benedikt Loewe, Thomas Mueller, Yun Xie (eds.) Birkhäuser, Basel (2016)

“Naturalism” in The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Humanism. Andrew Copson & A.C. Grayling (eds.) (2015)

“What Philosophy of Mathematical Practice Can Teach Argumentation Theory about Diagrams and Pictures” 2012 The Argument of Mathematics Aberdein, A. & Dove, I. (eds.). Springer p. 209-222.

“Syntactic Analogies and Impossible Extensions” in Löwe, B., & Müller, T. [2010] PhiMSAMP. Philosophy of Mathematics: Sociological Aspects and Mathematical Practice (Texts in Philosophy volume 11). College Publications.

“Authoritarian vs Authoritative Teaching: Polya and Lakatos”; in Hanna, G., Jahnke, H.
N., & Pulte, H. (Eds.) Explanation and proof in mathematics: Philosophical and educational perspectives. New York: Springer, 2010.

“Between Logic and History” in Induction, Algorithmic Learning Theory, and Philosophy (Logic, Epistemology, and the Unity of Science , Vol. 9) Friend, Michèle; Goethe, Norma B.; Harizanov, Valentina S. (Eds.) 2007, ISBN: 978-1-4020-6126-4

“Mill on Liberty of Thought and Discussion” in John Stuart Mill on… (British Humanist Association, 2006).

“Philosophy of Mathematics” in AC Grayling, Andrew Pyle, and Naomi Goulder (eds) Continuum Encyclopedia of British Philosophy. June 2006; Vol. 3, pp. 2106-2109.

(With Peter Cave) Editorial Introduction to Thinking About Death. British Humanist Association: 2004 (Brendan Larvor & Peter Cave eds).

Entries on ‘Imre Lakatos’ and ‘Research Programs’ in Pfeifer & Sarkar (eds) The Philosophy of Science: An Encyclopedia. Routledge: 2003.

“The role of history in the philosophy of science” in Companion to the Philosophy of Science (ed. W.H. Newton-Smith). Blackwell: 1999.

Editorial Work

Mathematical Cultures: The London Meetings 2012-2014 Edited collection, Birkhäuser, Basel (2016)

Larvor, Brendan; Löwe, Benedikt; Schlimm, Dirk (eds) Special section on the History and Philosophy of Infinity in Synthese August 2015, Volume 192, Issue 8, pp 2339-2344

Pedagogy

Hanna, Gila & Larvor, Brendan & Yan, Xiaoheng. (2023). Human-machine collaboration in the teaching of proof. Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. 13. 99-117.

(With Jo Ahlberg) Reverse Pedagogy: A Citizens’ Assembly Approach to the BAME Awarding Gap in Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership and Change 7(1), May 2021.

(With John Lippitt and Kathryn Weston) “Immortal Goods: Critical Friendships among Beginning Philosophers” Volume 10, Number 2 (Spring 2011) 111-146

(With John Lippitt) “Wot U @ Uni 4? Expectations and actuality of studying philosophy at university” Discourse Volume 9, No. 1 (Winter 2009) 93-110

“Feeling the Force of Argument” in Andrea Kenkmann (ed.) Teaching Philosophy. London & New York: Continuum, 2009.

“Students are Human Beings (Discuss)” Discourse Vol. 6 No. 1 (Autumn 2006) 225-236.

“The Case for Teaching Syllogistic Logic to Philosophy Students” Discourse Vol. 4 No. 1 (Autumn 2004) 130-136. Reprinted in Gil, Lancho & Manzano (eds) Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Tools for Teaching Logic. (2006: ISBN84-690-0348-8) 81-86.

Book Reviews

William Boos Metamathematics and the Philosophical Tradition In: Philosophia Mathematica. Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2021, Pages 292–293,

Tenley Martin Transnational Flamenco. Exchange and the Individual in British and Spanish Flamenco Culture (Jan 2021) In: Flamenco News p. 20-21

What is a Mathematical Concept? edited by Elizabeth de Freitas, Nathalie Sinclair, and Alf Coles, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, Volume 9 Issue 2 (July 2019), pages 309-322. . Available at: https://scholarship.claremont.edu/jhm/vol9/iss2/21

Wagner, Roi Making and Breaking Mathematical Sense in Notices of the American Mathematical Society. June 2018 65(6) 692-695.

Ferreirós, José Mathematical Knowledge and the Interplay of Practices
26 May 2016 In: London Mathematical Society Newsletter

‘Tales of Wonder’ review of Why is there Philosophy of Mathematics at all? Ian Hacking. in Metascience (2015)

Mathematics Without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation Michael Harris. Princeton University Press, 2015, 464 pp, £19.95, ISBN: 9780691154237 in London Mathematical Society Newsletter (August 2015)

Representation and Productive Ambiguity in Mathematics and the Sciences Emily R. Grosholz. OUP 2007 in Philosophia Mathematica (2012) 20(2): 245-251

The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice Paolo Mancosu (ed.) OUP 2008 in Philosophia Mathematica (2010) 18(3): 350-360

Ineffability and Philosophy by André Kukla (Oxford: Routledge, 2005) in Mind 118: 1153 – 1155. (October 2009).

Out of Error: Further Essays on Critical Rationalism by David Miller (Aldershot and Brookfield: Ashgate, 2005) in Metascience (2008).

Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography by Aviezer Tucker (Cambridge University Press, 2004) in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science vol. 21 Issue 2 (2007).

La Révolution Symbolique: La Constitution de l’Ecriture Symbolique Mathématique by Michel Serfati. Preface by Jacques Bouverasse. Paris: Éditions Petra, 2005. ISBN 2-84743-006-7. In Philosophia Mathematica (III) 15 (2007).

Appraising Lakatos: Mathematics, Methodology and the Man. (Ladisalv Kvasz and Michael Stöltzner eds) in Philosophia Mathematica 12 (3) 294-301 ( Oct 2004)

After Popper, Kuhn and Feyerabend: Recent Issues in Theories of Scientific Method (Robert Nola and Howard Sankey eds) reviewed in Metascience 11 (1): 100-104 (2002).

The Growth of Mathematical Knowledge (Emily Grosholz and Herbert Breger eds) reviewed in Philosophia Mathematica 10 (1) 93-96 (Feb 2002).

The Social Construction of What? (Ian Hacking) reviewed in Mind vol. 109 (July 2000).

For and Against Method (Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend, edited by Matteo Motterlini) reviewed in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51 (4) (2000) 919-922.

Mathematics as a Science of Patterns (Michael D. Resnik) reviewed in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science vol 12-2 (1998).

The Problematic Reality of Values (Bransen & Slors eds) reviewed in Philosophical Books vol. 39 no. 1 (January 1998) 61-62.

The Logical Status of Diagrams (Sun-Joo Shin) reviewed in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science vol 10-1 (1996).

The State We’re In (Will Hutton) reviewed in Philosophy Now.

Proof and Knowledge in Mathematics and Proof, Logic and Formalization (both Detlefsen ed.) reviewed in International Journal of Philosophical Studies Vol. 2 No. 1 (March 1994), pp. 149-51.

In Search of a Better World (Karl Popper) reviewed in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science.

Changing Tools: case studies in the history of scientific methodology (Márta Fehér) reviewed in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science.

Short reviews of papers for the American Mathematical Society’s Mathematical Reviews

2020 (2 reviews)

May 27 MR3967572 Read, Stephen Bradwardine and epistemic paradox. Modern views of medieval logic, 125–142, Bibliotheca, 16, Peeters, Leuven, 2018. 03B42 (01A35 03-03)

May 18 MR3967573 Restall, Greg Truth-tellers in Bradwardine’s theory of truth. Modern views of medieval logic, 143–154, Bibliotheca, 16, Peeters, Leuven, 2018. 03-03 (01A35 03A05)

2019 (1 review)

Apr 15 MR3823398 Wahl, Russell Syllogism in the Port-Royal Logic. The aftermath of syllogism, 83–104, Bloomsbury Stud. Aristot. Tradit., Bloomsbury Academic, London, 2018. 03-03 (01A45 03A05)

2018 (1 review)

May 07 MR3661172 Grey, John The modal equivalence rules of the Port-Royal logic. Hist. Philos. Logic 38 (2017), no. 3, 210–221. 03-03 (01A45 03B45)

2016 (1 review)

Jan 21 MR3313806 Bennett, Deborah Drawing logical conclusions. Math Horiz. 22 (2015), no. 3, 12–15. 01A45 (01A50 01A55 03-03)

2015 (2 reviews)

Dec 11 MR3329842 Uckelman, Sara L. Reasoning about obligations in Obligationes: a formal approach. Advances in modal logic. Vol. 10, 553–568, Coll. Publ., London, 2014. 03B42 (01Axx 03B45)

Mar 16 MR3220834 Beeley, Philip; Scriba, Christoph J. Controversy and modernity. John Wallis and the seventeenth-century debate on the nature of the angle of contact. Mathematics celestial and terrestrial, 431–450, Acta Hist. Leopoldina, 54, Dtsch. Akad. Naturforscher Leopold., Halle/Saale, 2008. 01A45

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