Article
ID: CBB001211973

Applicability, Indispensability, and Underdetermination: Puzzling Over Wigner's “Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics” (2013)

unapi
Mathematics Mathematics and its relationship to science Mathematics and its relationship to nature 20th century, late Wigner, Eugene Paul

In his influential 1960 paper `The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences', Eugene P. Wigner raises the question of why something that was developed without concern for empirical facts---mathematics---should turn out to be so powerful in explaining facts about the natural world. Recent philosophy of science has developed `Wigner's puzzle' in two different directions: First, in relation to the supposed indispensability of mathematical facts to particular scientific explanations and, secondly, in connection with the idea that aesthetic criteria track theoretical desiderata such as empirical success. An important aspect of Wigner's article has, however, been overlooked in these debates: his worries about the underdetermination of physical theories by mathematical frameworks. The present paper argues that, by restoring this aspect of Wigner's argument to its proper place, Wigner's puzzle may become an instructive case study for the teaching of core issues in the philosophy of science and its history.

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Authors & Contributors
McCullough-Benner, Colin
Eric, Cindy Hodoba
Josh Hunt
Wright, Aaron Sidney
Schlote, Karl-Heinz
Reich, Karin
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Science and Education
Physics in Perspective
Hyle
Rutherford Journal: The New Zealand Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
Interdisciplinary Science Reviews
Publishers
Verlag Harri Deutsch
Princeton University Press
Harrassowitz in Kommission
Indiana University
Concepts
Mathematics and its relationship to science
Mathematics
Mathematics and its relationship to nature
Physics
Philosophy of science
Philosophy of mathematics
People
Wigner, Eugene Paul
Rosenfeld, Léon
Tausk, Klaus
Polanyi, Michael
Plato
Newton, Isaac
Time Periods
20th century, late
Early modern
Renaissance
Ancient
20th century
18th century
Places
England
Italy
Hungary
Greece
India
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