Christina Conroy

Graduate Student in Logic & Philosophy of Science

Research Interests

My research interests are mainly focused on the history of the development of the theory of relations as finally formalized by Russell and Whitehead at the end of the nineteenth, beginning of the twentieth century. I find it interesting that despite the fact that Aristotle was aware of difficulties in the handling of relational statements, and philosophers following him encountered even more aberrant statements, a consistent and complete system for the formulation of relations was not developed until Principia Mathematica. I have been asking the question, "Why did it take so long?". I believe one of the answers lies in the way relations were viewed metaphysically. Another answer deals with the quantification of science and so the introduction of mathematics to the study of natural philosophy. I am also working on determining whether Russell's theory of numbers was one of the things that helped lead him into his theory of relations.

This research has been bolstered by a deep interest in the history of philosophy and the history of mathematics. An interest I intend to foster in the coming years.

Education

B.A., Philosophy (with minor in Mathematics), Hunter College, CUNY

Contact Information

Office: SST 786
Phone: 949-824-7051
e-mail: cconroy@uci.edu