The applicability of mathematics as a scientific and a logical problem

Philosophia Mathematica 18 (2):144-165 (2010)
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Abstract

This paper explores how to explain the applicability of classical mathematics to the physical world in a radically naturalistic and nominalistic philosophy of mathematics. The applicability claim is first formulated as an ordinary scientific assertion about natural regularity in a class of natural phenomena and then turned into a logical problem by some scientific simplification and abstraction. I argue that there are some genuine logical puzzles regarding applicability and no current philosophy of mathematics has resolved these puzzles. Then I introduce a plan for resolving the logical puzzles of applicability

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2010-06-05

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Author's Profile

Feng Ye
Capital Normal University, Beijing, China