Abstract

Mathematical modelling of nature, due to its accuracy and universality, plays a key role in the scientific inquiry of the world. So important its function is that some authors have defended the existence of an ontological burden in the mathematical formalism used by scientists. According to this opinion, the appeal to certain formalism would entail an implicit commitment to the type of entities that populate the material world. In this paper, the aforementioned thesis will be analysed, as well as other versions of mathematical Platonism, with the conclusion that there are no reasons to support it and that, therefore, it does not pose a threat to a realistic metaphysics in any of its modalities, such as structural realism.