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. © The Author [2009]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
CITATION STYLE
Ye, F. (2010). The applicability of mathematics as a scientific and a logical problem. Philosophia Mathematica, 18(2), 144–165. https://doi.org/10.1093/philmat/nkp014
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