Jump to content

Mathematics

From Natural Philosophy Wiki

Mathematics is the language in which physical theory is written, and on this wiki it is also a subject of dispute in its own right — several researchers here argue that mathematical formalism has been allowed to substitute for physical explanation, or that particular mathematical foundations are themselves unsound.

Topics disputed on this wiki

  • The claim that non-Euclidean geometry is, in Peter F Erickson's phrase, "a mere manipulation of symbols" rather than a description of space.
  • Disputes over the infinite and the infinitesimal — whether space and time are infinitely divisible, and what an irrational magnitude denotes.
  • Objections to set-theoretic continuity and to the limit concept in the calculus.
  • Alternative number systems proposed as better suited to physical description.

See also