Science without numbers /

'Science Without Numbers' caused a stir when it was originally published in 1980, with its bold nominalist approach to the philosophy of mathematics and science. It has been unavailable for 20 years and is now reissued in a revised edition with a substantial new preface presenting the auth...

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New to this edition --
Arithmetic and cardinality quantifiers --
Mereology and logic --
Representation theorems --
Conservativeness --
Indispensability --
Other forms of anti-Platonism --
Miscellaneous technicalia --
Contents for the first edition --
Preliminary remarks --
Why the utility of Mathematical entities is unlike the utility of theoretical entities ; Appendix: on conservativeness --
First illustration of why Mathematical entities are useful: Arithmetic --
Second illustration of why mathematical entities are useful: Geometry and distance --
Nominalism and the structure of physical space --
My strategy for nominalizing Physics, and its advantages --
A nominalistic treatment of Newtonian space-time --
A nominalistic treatment of quantities, and a preview of a nominalistic treatment of the laws involving them --
Newtonian Gravitational Theory nominalized --
Continuity --
Products and ratios --
Signed products and ratios --
Derivatives --
Second (and higher) derivatives --
Laplaceans --
Poisson's equation --
Inner products --
Gradients --
Differentiation of Vector Fields --
The Law of Motion --
General Remarks --
Logic and ontology.
Main Author:
Field, Hartry H.
Format:
Electronic eBook
Language:
English
Published:
Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2016.
Edition:
Second edition.
Summary:
'Science Without Numbers' caused a stir when it was originally published in 1980, with its bold nominalist approach to the philosophy of mathematics and science. It has been unavailable for 20 years and is now reissued in a revised edition with a substantial new preface presenting the author's current views and responses to the issues raised in subsequent debate.
Physical Description:
1 online resource (vi, P-53, vi, 111 pages) : illustrations
Notes:
This edition previously issued in print: 2016.
Bibliography:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
0-19-182338-4
0-19-108377-1
Subjects:
Science > Philosophy.
Mathematics > Philosophy.
Nominalism.
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