Mathematical Explanations of Non-Mathematical Facts? - a podcast by MCMP Team

Gabriel Tarziu (Romanian Academy) gives a talk at the MCMP Colloquium (7 January, 2015) titled "Mathematical explanations of non-mathematical facts?". Abstract: Are there mathematized explanations of physical phenomena? A fairly uncontroversial answer will look like this: of course there are – it is sufficient a glimpse at what happens in science to find plenty examples. Actually, if one’s science of choice is physics, it would be hard to find non-mathematics involving explanations of the phenomena. This fact raises a host of interesting philosophical problems: why can mathematics be used in such a context? what are the explanatory benefits that such a use bring with it, if there are any? what is the role played by the mathematical part in these explanations? can it be taken, at least sometimes, as explanatory in its own right? This last problem received a great deal of attention lately mainly because it is of central importance in the quarrel between realists and nominalists. This debate is irrelevant here. This talk will explore the prospect of finding an account of scientific explanation that will tell us how the mathematical part can be genuinely explanatory in such a context. I will argue that the main models of explanation fail for various reasons to accommodate mathematical explanations of physical phenomena and I will present some reasons for being skeptical that a model that accommodates such explanations can be found.

Further episodes of MCMP – Philosophy of Science

Further podcasts by MCMP Team

Website of MCMP Team