Knowles, R and Saatsi, J orcid.org/0000-0002-8440-8761
(2021)
Mathematics and Explanatory Generality: Nothing but Cognitive Salience.
Erkenntnis, 86 (5).
pp. 1119-1137.
ISSN 0165-0106
Abstract
We demonstrate how real progress can be made in the debate surrounding the enhanced indispensability argument. Drawing on a counterfactual theory of explanation, well-motivated independently of the debate, we provide a novel analysis of ‘explanatory generality’ and how mathematics is involved in its procurement. On our analysis, mathematics’ sole explanatory contribution to the procurement of explanatory generality is to make counterfactual information about physical dependencies easier to grasp and reason with for creatures like us. This gives precise content to key intuitions traded in the debate, regarding mathematics’ procurement of explanatory generality, and adjudicates unambiguously in favour of the nominalist, at least as far as explanatory generality is concerned.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
Keywords: | Indispensability argument; Mathematical explanation; Mathematical platonism; Scientific explanation |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science (Leeds) > School of Philosophy (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number British Academy pf160035 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Jul 2019 09:56 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Netherlands |
Identification Number: | 10.1007/s10670-019-00146-x |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:148812 |