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- Title
Du Châtelet on the Need for Mathematics in Physics.
- Authors
Wells, Aaron
- Abstract
There is a tension in Emilie Du Châtelet's thought on mathematics. The objects of mathematics are ideal or fictional entities; nevertheless, mathematics is presented as indispensable for an account of the physical world. After outlining Du Châtelet's position, and showing how she departs from Christian Wolff's pessimism about Newtonian mathematical physics, I show that the tension in her position is only apparent. Du Châtelet has a worked-out defense of the explanatory and epistemic need for mathematical objects, consistent with their metaphysical nonfundamentality. I conclude by sketching how Du Châtelet's conception of mathematical indispensability differs interestingly from many contemporary approaches.
- Subjects
PESSIMISM; MATHEMATICS
- Publication
Philosophy of Science, 2021, Vol 88, Issue 5, p1137
- ISSN
0031-8248
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1086/714874