International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 21 (1):19 – 33 (2007)
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Abstract |
According to the indispensability argument, scientific realists ought to believe in the existence of mathematical entities, due to their indispensable role in theorising. Arguably the crucial sense of indispensability can be understood in terms of the contribution that mathematics sometimes makes to the super-empirical virtues of a theory. Moreover, the way in which the scientific realist values such virtues, in general, and draws on explanatory virtues, in particular, ought to make the realist ontologically committed to abstracta. This paper shows that this version of the indispensability argument glosses over crucial detail about how the scientific realist attempts to generate justificatory commitment to unobservables. The kind of role that the Platonist attributes to mathematics in scientific reasoning is compatible with nominalism, as far as scientific realist arguments are concerned.
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Keywords | Mathematics Realism Explanation Philosophy of Science |
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DOI | 10.1080/02698590701305743 |
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References found in this work BETA
Inference to the Best Explanation.Peter Lipton - 1991 - London and New York: Routledge/Taylor and Francis Group.
View all 28 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Mathematical Explanation in Science.Alan Baker - 2009 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (3):611-633.
On the ‘Indispensable Explanatory Role’ of Mathematics.Juha Saatsi - 2016 - Mind 125 (500):1045-1070.
The Enhanced Indispensability Argument: Representational Versus Explanatory Role of Mathematics in Science.Juha Saatsi - 2011 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 62 (1):143-154.
Plato's Problem: An Introduction to Mathematical Platonism.Marco Panza & Andrea Sereni - 2013 - London and Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Realism and the Limits of Explanatory Reasoning.Juha Saatsi - 2018 - In The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Realism. London: Routledge. pp. 200-211.
View all 15 citations / Add more citations
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