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Philosophy of Mathematics: Applicability, Ontology and Reasoning

Fifth International Conference of the Italian Network for the Philosophy of Mathematics – FilMat

September 9 – September 11, 2026
Department of Philosophy, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Wednesday, 9 September

08:45–09:15 Registration
09:15–09:30 Welcome

09:30–10:30 [Keynote] Chris Pincock — Ohio State University
Do Mathematical Objects Have Natures?

10:30–11:10 Rami Jreige — University of Bristol
From Physics to Mathematics: Abstraction and Converse Applicability in Witten’s Chern-Simons Theory

11:10–11:40 Coffee break

11:40–12:20 Pietro Brocci — Scuola Normale Superiore
On Compositional Truth and Predicativity: Revisiting Halbach’s Conjecture

12:20–13:00 Maria Beatrice Buonaguidi — King’s College London
Closed Classes and Hyperuniverses

13:00–14:30 Lunch

14:30–15:30 [Keynote] Deborah Kant — Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The Foundational Role of Set Theory and Set-Theoretic Pluralism

15:30–16:10 Alessandro Giglia — University of Oslo
Against the Equivalence of Potentialist and Actualist Set Theories

16:10–16:40 Coffee break

16:40–17:20 Ludovica Conti — University of Vienna, and Leon Horsten — University of Konstanz
From Generic Reasoning to Arbitrary Abstract Objects

17:20–18:00 Silviu-Constantin Federovici — Alexandru Ioan Cuza University
Objectivity without Antecedent Determinacy: Brouwer on the Intuitionistic Continuum

18:00–18:40 Mary Elworth — IUSS Pavia
Reasoning in Mathematics Using Diagrams: Which Kinds of Knowledge?

Thursday, 10 September

09:00–10:00 [Keynote] Claudio Ternullo — University of Catania
Forms of Pluralism and the Future of Set Theory

10:00–10:40 Fernando Hurtado-Chaurand — Università della Svizzera Italiana
Parmenides and Zeno on the Discernibility of Continuous Parts

10:40–11:10 Coffee break

11:10–11:50 Nicola Bonatti — MCMP, LMU Munich
Counting, Minimality and the Natural Numbers

11:50–12:30 Simone Picenni — ILLC, University of Amsterdam
Conceptions of Sets and Classes in Class Theories with a Universal Set

12:30–14:00 Lunch

14:00–14:40 Lyra So — University of Amsterdam
Reviving Indefinite Extensibility in a World of Definite Sets

14:40–15:20 Nuno Maia — University of Salzburg
What Do Sets Say About Dependence?

15:20–15:50 Coffee break

15:50–16:30 Pietro Lampronti — LMU Munich & University of Manchester
Reductive Fundamentality, Abstractionism, and Metaphysics

16:30–17:10 Cristian Novelli — University of the Republic, Udelar
Between the Abstract and the Concrete: A Response to (Some of) the Problems of the Application of Mathematics in the Empirical Sciences

17:15–18:45 FilMat General Assembly

20:30 Conference Dinner

Friday, 11 September

09:30–10:30 [Keynote] Davide Rizza — University of East Anglia
Structure as a Mode of Operation

10:30–11:00 Coffee break

11:00–11:40 Davide Sutto — University of Oslo, and Neil Barton — National University of Singapore
Axiomatizing the Weak Iterative Conception of Set, Part 1: Constructible Level Theory

11:40–12:20 Tianyi Zheng — KU Leuven
The Puzzle of Inquiry in Distinctively Mathematical Explanation

12:20–12:30 Closing Remarks