Maddy is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Logic and Philosophy of Science and of Mathematics at the University of California, Irvine.

[2] After being given a book on abstract algebra by her teacher, she entered the 1968 Westinghouse Science Talent Search, becoming a finalist and placing seventh overall.

She used contemporary work in cognitive science and psychology to support this position, pointing out that just as at a certain age we begin to see objects rather than mere sense perceptions, there is also a certain age at which we begin to see sets rather than just objects.

That is, mathematics is neither supported nor undermined by the needs and goals of science but is allowed to obey its own criteria.

Like Wittgenstein, she suggests that many of these puzzles arise merely because of the application of language outside its proper domain of significance.

She has been dedicated to understanding and explaining the methods that set theorists use in agreeing on axioms, especially those that go beyond ZFC.