Mathematics, The Computer Revolution and the Real World

Philosophica 42:79-92 (1988)
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Abstract

The philosophy of mathematics has largely abandoned foundational studies, but is still fixated on theorem proving, logic and number theory, and on whether mathematical knowledge is certain. That is not what mathematics looks like to, say, a knot theorist or an industrial mathematical modeller. The "computer revolution" shows that mathematics is a much more direct study of the world, especially its structural aspects.

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Author's Profile

James Franklin
University of New South Wales

Citations of this work

The formal sciences discover the philosophers' stone.James Franklin - 1994 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (4):513-533.

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References found in this work

The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.Eugene Wigner - 1960 - Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics 13:1-14.
Non-deductive logic in mathematics.James Franklin - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (1):1-18.
On Tymoczko's argument for mathematical empiricism.Margarita R. Levin - 1981 - Philosophical Studies 39 (1):79 - 86.

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