David Corfield

{{Short description|British philosopher}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox philosopher | region = Western philosophy | era = Contemporary philosophy | name = David Corfield | birth_name = David Neil Corfield | image = | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | education = University of Cambridge (BA) King's College London (MSc; PhD, 1996) | institutions = University of Kent | school_tradition = Analytic | main_interests = Philosophy of mathematics Philosophy of psychology | notable_ideas = Philosophy of real mathematics<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Philosophy of Mathematical Practice |first1=Silvia |last1=De Toffoli |first2=Paolo |last2=Mancosu |encyclopedia=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-first1=Edward N. |editor-last1=Zalta |editor-first2=Uri |editor-last2=Nodelman |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematical-practice/ |date=2026-04-07 |access-date=2026-04-11}}</ref> (as opposed to metamathematics) Adoption of mathematical-categorification procedures for philosophy Homotopy type theory as an inherently structuralist foundational language for mathematics Modal homotopy type theory | doctoral_advisor = Donald A. Gillies | thesis_title = Research Programmes, Logic, and Analogy: Three Aspects of Mathematics and Its Development | thesis_url = https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/search?author=David%20Corfield&document-type=thesis&rn=1 | thesis_year = 1996 }} '''David Neil Corfield''' is a British philosopher specializing in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of psychology. He was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Kent until 2024.

==Education== Corfield studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and later earned his MSc and PhD in the philosophy of science and mathematics at King's College London.<ref>Apostolos Doxiadis, Barry Mazur, ''Circles Disturbed: The Interplay of Mathematics and Narrative'', Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 541.</ref><ref>[https://thalesandfriends.org/delphi-conference/bios/ Bios - Thales + Friends]</ref> His doctoral advisor was Donald A. Gillies.<ref>[https://thalesandfriends.org/2007/07/22/mclarty-corfield/ Corfield interviewed by McLarty - Thales + Friends]</ref>

==Work== Corfield is the author of ''Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics'' (2003), in which he argues that the philosophical implications of mathematics did not stop with Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorems. He has also co-authored a book with Darian Leader about psychology and psychosomatic medicine, ''Why Do People Get Ill?'' (2007).

He joined the University of Kent in September 2007 where he was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy until 2024.

He is a member of the informal steering committee of ''n''Lab, a wiki-lab for collaborative work on mathematics, physics, and philosophy.

==Bibliography== * "Assaying Lakatos's Philosophy of Mathematics", ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Science'' 28(1), 99–121 (1997). * "Beyond the Methodology of Mathematical Research Programmes", ''Philosophia Mathematica'' 6, 272–301 (1998). * "Come the Revolution...", critical notice on ''The Principles of Mathematics Revisited'' by Jaakko Hintikka, ''Philosophical Books'' 39(3), 150–6 (1998). * "The Importance of Mathematical Conceptualisation", ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Science'' 32(3), 507–533 (2001). * "Bayesianism in Mathematics", in Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.) (2001), 175–201. * (with J. Williamson), "Bayesianism into the 21st Century", in Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.) (2001), 1–16. * Corfield D. and Williamson J. (eds.), ''Foundations of Bayesianism'', Kluwer Applied Logic Series (2001). * "Argumentation and the Mathematical Process", G. Kampis, L. Kvasz & M. Stöltzner (eds.) ''Appraising Lakatos: Mathematics, Methodology, and the Man'', 115–138. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2002). * Review of ''Conceptual Mathematics'' by F. W. Lawvere and S. Schanuel and ''A Primer of Infinitesimal Analysis'' by J. Bell, ''Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics'', 33B(2), 359–366 (2002). * "From Mathematics to Psychology: Lacan's Missed Encounters" in J. Glynos and Y. Stavrakakis (eds.), ''Lacan and Science'', Karnac Books, 179–206 (2002). * ''Towards a Philosophy of Real Mathematics'', Cambridge University Press (2003). * Review of ''Opening Skinner's Box'' by Lauren Slater, ''The Guardian'', 27 March 2004. * Review of {{cite journal | last1 = Krieger | first1 = M. | year = 2005 | title = Doing Mathematics. | journal = Philosophia Mathematica | volume = 13 | pages = 106–111 }} * "Categorification as a Heuristic Device", in D. Gillies and C. Cellucci (eds.), ''Mathematical Reasoning and Heuristics'', King's College Publications (2005). * "Some Implications of the Adoption of Category Theory for Philosophy", in Giandomenico Sica (ed.), ''What is Category Theory?'', Polimetrica (2006), 75–94. * (with Darian Leader) ''Why Do People Get Ill?'', Hamish Hamilton (2007). * {{cite journal | year = 2011 | title = Understanding the Infinite II: Coalgebra | doi = 10.1016/j.shpsa.2011.09.013 | journal = Studies in History and Philosophy of Science | volume = 42 | pages = 571–579 | last1 = Corfield | first1 = David | issue = 4 | bibcode = 2011SHPSA..42..571C }} * ''Modal Homotopy Type Theory: The Prospect of a New Logic for Philosophy'', Oxford University Press (2020).

==References== {{reflist|25em}}

==External links== * [https://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/philosophy/staff/corfield.html Faculty page] at the University of Kent * [https://ncatlab.org/davidcorfield/show/HomePage Home page] in ''n''Lab * [http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/ Philosophy/mathematics group blog "The ''n''-Category Cafe"], written by Corfield, John Baez, Urs Schreiber and Alex Hoffnung * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080615031404/http://www.dcorfield.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blog.html Internet Archive of Corfield's old blog, "Philosophy of Real Mathematics" (last version)] * [https://whydopeoplegetill.blogspot.com/index.html His psychosomatic medicine blog, "Why Do People Get Ill?"] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20091128033249/http://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/~dcorfield Homepage] at the Max Planck Institut * [https://thalesandfriends.org/2007/07/23/mazur-interviewed-by-corfield/ Mazur interviewed by Corfield - Thales + Friends]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corfield, David}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century British philosophers Category:Philosophers of mathematics Category:Academics of the University of Kent Category:Science bloggers Category:21st-century science writers