Many arguments found in the physics literature involve concepts that are not well-defined by the usual standards of mathematics. I argue that physicists are entitled to employ such concepts without rigorously defining them so long as they restrict the sorts of mathematical arguments in which these concepts are involved. Restrictions of this sort allow the physicist to ignore calculations involving these concepts that might lead to contradictory results. I argue that such restrictions need not be ad hoc, but can sometimes be justified by considering some of the metaphysical issues surrounding the question of the applicability of mathematics to physical reality. 1 Introduction 2 Rejecting inferential permissiveness 3 The agreement problem 4 Independent objections to the liberal view
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Antonino Drago;
(2017)
Dalla storia della fisica alla scoperta dei fondamenti della scienza
(/isis/citation/CBB248791186/)
Chapter
Sylla, Edith Dudley;
(2008)
The Origin and Fate of Thomas Bradwardine's De proportionibus velocitatum in motibus in Relation to the History of Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB000760473/)
Chapter
Celeyrette, Jean;
(2008)
Bradwardine's Rule: A Mathematical Law?
(/isis/citation/CBB000760472/)
Article
Smadja, Ivahn;
(2012)
Local Axioms in Disguise: Hilbert on Minkowski Diagrams
(/isis/citation/CBB001211483/)
Book
Pépin, François;
(2012)
La philosophie expérimentale de Diderot et la chimie: philosophie, sciences et arts
(/isis/citation/CBB001214180/)
Article
Sisko, John E.;
(2009)
On the Question of Homoeomereity in Anaxagorean Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001021123/)
Article
D'Agostino, Salvo;
(2013)
Fenomenologia e matematica nell’opera di Helmholtz e di Kirchhoff
(/isis/citation/CBB883375337/)
Book
Giuseppe Bruzzaniti;
(2023)
Di cose visibili e invisibili. Dall'atomo ai quark, viaggiando nelle immagini della materia
(/isis/citation/CBB958492367/)
Book
Bradwardine, Thomas;
Oresme, Nicolas;
Ronnevaux, Sabine;
(2010)
Traité des rapports entre les rapidités dans les mouvements. Suivi de: Sur les rapports de rapports
(/isis/citation/CBB001023293/)
Book
Schuster, John;
(2013)
Descartes-Agonistes: Physico-Mathematics, Method and Corpuscular-Mechanism 1618--33
(/isis/citation/CBB001500367/)
Article
Giovanni Battimelli;
Adele La Rana;
Paolo Rossi;
(2020)
Masters and students in Italian Physics between the 19th and 20th centuries: the Felici-Bartoli-Stracciati-Corbino case
(/isis/citation/CBB545240140/)
Book
Brown, James Robert;
(1991)
The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001500158/)
Article
Bueno, Otávio;
French, Steven;
Ladyman, James;
(2002)
On Representing the Relationship between the Mathematical and the Empirical
(/isis/citation/CBB000300402/)
Article
Rigden, John S.;
Stuewer, Roger H.;
(2012)
Understanding of Quantum Mechanics Eludes Physicists for Eighty-Six Years
(/isis/citation/CBB001221642/)
Chapter
Kuusk, Piret;
(2001)
Physical Reality, Theoretical Physics, and Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB000102692/)
Book
Omnès, Roland;
(2005)
Converging Realities: Toward a Common Philosophy of Physics and Mathematics
(/isis/citation/CBB000610304/)
Article
Gray, Jeremy;
(2011)
The Vagueness of Wigner's Analysis
(/isis/citation/CBB001252296/)
Article
Domski, Mary;
(2013)
Kant and Newton on the a priori Necessity of Geometry
(/isis/citation/CBB001320266/)
Article
Quale, Andreas;
(2011)
On the Role of Mathematics in Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001032754/)
Chapter
Huggett, Nick;
(2012)
What Did Newton Mean by “Absolute Motion”?
(/isis/citation/CBB001500345/)
Be the first to comment!