The indispensability of mathematics / Mark Colyvan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colyvan, Mark, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematics--History.

Mathematics.

Mathematics--Philosophy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 172 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Quine-Putnam indispensability argument in the philosophy of mathematics urges us to place mathematical entities on the same ontological footing as other theoretical entities indispenable to certain scientific theories. This text examines the issues.

Contents:

""Contents""; ""1 Mathematics and Its Applications""; ""1.1 Realism and Anti-realism in Mathematics""; ""1.2 Indispensability Arguments""; ""1.3 The Road Ahead""; ""2 The Quinean Backdrop""; ""2.1 Introducing Naturalism""; ""2.2 Quinean Naturalism""; ""2.3 The Methodologies of Philosophy and Science""; ""2.4 The Causal Version of Naturalism""; ""2.5 Holism""; ""2.6 The First Premise Revisited""; ""3 The Eleatic Principle""; ""3.1 The Inductive Argument""; ""3.2 The Epistemic Argument""; ""3.3 The Argument from Causal Explanation""; ""3.4 Causal Relevance""

""3.5 Rejecting Inference to the Best Explanation""""3.6 The Content of Scientific Theories""; ""3.7 The Moral""; ""3.8 Recapitulation""; ""4 Field's Fictionalism""; ""4.1 The Science without Numbers Project""; ""4.2 What Is It to Be Indispensable?""; ""4.3 The Role of Confirmation Theory""; ""4.4 The Role of Mathematics in Physical Theories""; ""4.5 Review of Field's Fictionalism""; ""5 Maddy's Objections""; ""5.1 The Objections""; ""5.2 Maddy's Naturalism""; ""5.3 Defending the Indispensability Argument""; ""5.4 Review of Maddy's Objections""

""6 The Empirical Nature of Mathematical Knowledge""""6.1 The Obviousness of Some Mathematical Truth""; ""6.2 The Unfalsifiability of Mathematics""; ""6.3 The Sober Objection""; ""6.4 Is Mathematics Contingent?""; ""7 Conclusion""; ""7.1 What the Argument Doesn't Show""; ""7.2 The Benacerraf Challenges""; ""7.3 A Slippery Slope?""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""; ""A""; ""B""; ""C""; ""D""; ""E""; ""F""; ""G""; ""H""; ""I""; ""J""; ""K""; ""L""; ""M""; ""N""; ""O""; ""P""; ""Q""; ""R""; ""S""; ""T""; ""U""; ""V""; ""W""; ""Z""

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-167) and index.

ISBN:

0-19-983313-3

9786610534012

1-280-53401-X

0-19-803144-0

1-4237-5676-2

OCLC:

922953078