Rules to Infinity

Auteur
Mark Povich is Visiting Assistant Professor in Philosophy at University of Rochester. He has published articles in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Erkenntnis, Mind, Philosophy of Science, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, Synthese, among others.

Texte du rabat

Rules to Infinity defends the thesis that mathematics contributes to the explanatory power of science by expressing conceptual rules that allow for the transformation of empirical descriptions. It claims that mathematics should not be thought of as describing, in any substantive sense, an abstract realm of eternal mathematical objects, as traditional Platonists have thought.

Contenu

• Preface

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Scientific Explanation, Mathematics, and Metaontology

• Chapter 2. Distinctively Mathematical Explanation

• Chapter 3. Renormalization Group Explanation

• Chapter 4. The Narrow Ontic Counterfactual Account

• Chapter 5. Deflating the Narrow Ontic Counterfactual Account

• Chapter 6. Semantics, Metasemantics, and Function

• Chapter 7. The Content of a Mathematical Model

• Chapter 8. Normativism and its Rivals

• Chapter 9. Conclusion

• References

• Index