Mathematics: A Tool or Description? Instrumentalistic and Realistic Interpretations of the Applications of Mathematics

• Authors: Jarosław Mrozek

Title variants

PL

Matematyka - narzędzie czy opis? Instrumentalistyczna i realistyczna interpretacja zastosowań matematyki

EN

Mathematics: A Tool or Description? Instrumentalistic and Realistic Interpretations of the Applications of Mathematics

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

In the paper there are presented two proposals of the interpretations of the applications of mathematics in the natural sciences - realistic and instrumentalistic. The realistic conception, in accordance with the successes of science, maintains that there exists some kind of correspondence between the mathematical structures and the internal structure of the world. It is expressed in the thesis of the mathematicality of nature. The instrumentalistic approach separates the cognitive content of the scientific theory from the mathematical means of expression of the content. In this approach the mathematical categories do not represent any aspect of the modelled reality. In the final part of the paper the author undertakes such an attempt of approaching the applications of mathematics which, while combining the advantages of the above discussed conceptions, would be devoid of their disadvantages.

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Wydział Filozofii
• Journal: Filozofia Nauki
• Year: 1996
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 63-77

Dates

published

1996-06-01

Contributors

author

Jarosław Mrozek