Science without Numbers (Hardcover, 2nd Revised edition)

Science Without Numbers caused a stir in philosophy on its original publication in 1980, with its bold nominalist approach to the ontology of mathematics and science. Hartry Field argues that we can explain the utility of mathematics without assuming it true. Part of the argument is that good mathematics has a special feature ("conservativeness") that allows it to be applied to "nominalistic" claims (roughly, those neutral to the existence of mathematical entities) in a way that generates nominalistic consequences more easily without generating any new ones. Field goes on to argue that we can axiomatize physical theories using nominalistic claims only, and that in fact this has advantages over the usual axiomatizations that are independent of nominalism. There has been much debate about the book since it first appeared. It is now reissued in a revised contains a substantial new preface giving the author's current views on the original book and the issues that were raised in the subsequent discussion of it.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	October 2016
Authors:	Hartry Field
Dimensions:	222 x 142 x 17mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	180
Edition:	2nd Revised edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-877791-5
Categories:	Books > Science & Mathematics > Mathematics > Philosophy of mathematics Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > Philosophy of science
LSN:	0-19-877791-4
Barcode:	9780198777915

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