The historical and epistemological reflection on the applications of mathematical techniques to the Sciences of Nature - physics, biology, chemistry, and geology - today generates attention and interest because of the increasing use of mathematical models in all sciences and their high level of sophistication. The goal of the meeting and the papers collected in this proceedings volume is to give physicists, biologists, mathematicians, and historians of science the opportunity to share information on their work and reflect on the and mathematical models are used in the natural sciences today and in way mathematics the past. The program of the workshop combines the experience of those working on current scientific research in many different fields with the historical analysis of previous results. We hope that some novel interdisciplinary, philosophical, and epistemological considerations will follow from the two aspects of the workshop, the historical and the scientific. This proceedings includes papers presented at the meeting and some of the results of the discussions that took place during the workshop. We wish to express our gratitude to Sergio Monteiro for all his work, which has been essential for the successful publication of these proceedings. We also want to thank the editors of Kluwer AcademidPlenum Publishers for their patience and constant help, and in particular Beth Kuhne and Roberta Klarreich. Our thanks to the fallowing institutions: -Amministrazione Comunale di Arcidosso -Comunita Montana del Monte Amiata .Center for the History of Physics, UCLA -Centre F."

Determinism, holism and complexity: three epistemological attitudes that have easily identifiable historical origins and developments. Galileo believed that it was necessary to "prune the impediments" to extract the mathematical essence of physical phenomena, to identify the math ematical structures representing the underlying laws. This Galilean method was the key element in the development of Physics, with its extraordinary successes. Nevertheless the method was later criticized because it led to a view of nature as essentially "simple and orderly," and thus by choosing not to investigate several charac teristics considered as an "impediment," several essential aspects of the phenomenon under investigation might be left out. The Galilean point of view also contains an acknowledgement of the central role played by the causal nexus among phenomena. The mechanistic-deterministic de scription of reality - for instance, a la Laplace - although acknowledging that it is not possible to predict phenomena exactly owing to unavoid able measurement error, is based on the recognition of the their causal nature, even in an ontological sense. Consequently, deterministic predic tion became the methodological fulcrum of mathematical physics. But although mechanistic determinism has had and, in many cases, still has, considerable success in Physics, in other branches of science this situa tion is much less favourable."

By modern analytic mechanics we mean the classical mechanics of today, that is, the mechanics that has proven particularly useful in understanding the universe as we experience it from the solar system, to particle accelerators, to rocket motion. The mathematical and numerical techniques that are part of this mechanics that we present are those that we have found to be particularly productive in our work in the subject. The balance of topics in this book is somewhat different from previous texts. We emphasize the use of phase space to describe the dynamics of a system and to have a qualitative understanding of nonlinear systems. We incorporate exercises that are to be done using a computer to solve linear and nonlinear problems and to have a graphical representation of the results. While analytic solutions of physics problems are to be prefer. red, it is not always possible to find them for all problems. When that happens, techniques other than analysis must be brought to bear on the problem. In many cases numerical treatments are useful in generating solutions, and with these solutions often come new insights. These insights can sometimes be used for making further analytic progress, and often the process is iterative. Thus the ability to use a computer to solve problems is one of the tools of the modern physicist. Just as analytic problem-solving enhances the student's understanding of physics, so will using the computer enhance his or her appreciation of the subject.

The historical and epistemological reflection on the applications of mathematical techniques to the Sciences of Nature - physics, biology, chemistry, and geology - today generates attention and interest because of the increasing use of mathematical models in all sciences and their high level of sophistication. The goal of the meeting and the papers collected in this proceedings volume is to give physicists, biologists, mathematicians, and historians of science the opportunity to share information on their work and reflect on the and mathematical models are used in the natural sciences today and in way mathematics the past. The program of the workshop combines the experience of those working on current scientific research in many different fields with the historical analysis of previous results. We hope that some novel interdisciplinary, philosophical, and epistemological considerations will follow from the two aspects of the workshop, the historical and the scientific* This proceedings includes papers presented at the meeting and some of the results of the discussions that took place during the workshop. We wish to express our gratitude to Sergio Monteiro for all his work, which has been essential for the successful publication of these proceedings. We also want to thank the editors of Kluwer AcademidPlenum Publishers for their patience and constant help, and in particular Beth Kuhne and Roberta Klarreich. Our thanks to the fallowing institutions: -Amministrazione Comunale di Arcidosso -Comunita Montana del Monte Amiata *Center for the History of Physics, UCLA -Centre F.

By modern analytic mechanics we mean the classical mechanics of today, that is, the mechanics that has proven particularly useful in understanding the universe as we experience it from the solar system, to particle accelerators, to rocket motion. The mathematical and numerical techniques that are part of this mechanics that we present are those that we have found to be particularly productive in our work in the subject. The balance of topics in this book is somewhat different from previous texts. We emphasize the use of phase space to describe the dynamics of a system and to have a qualitative understanding of nonlinear systems. We incorporate exercises that are to be done using a computer to solve linear and nonlinear problems and to have a graphical representation of the results. While analytic solutions of physics problems are to be prefer. red, it is not always possible to find them for all problems. When that happens, techniques other than analysis must be brought to bear on the problem. In many cases numerical treatments are useful in generating solutions, and with these solutions often come new insights. These insights can sometimes be used for making further analytic progress, and often the process is iterative. Thus the ability to use a computer to solve problems is one of the tools of the modern physicist. Just as analytic problem-solving enhances the student's understanding of physics, so will using the computer enhance his or her appreciation of the subject.

Determinism, holism and complexity: three epistemological attitudes that have easily identifiable historical origins and developments. Galileo believed that it was necessary to "prune the impediments" to extract the mathematical essence of physical phenomena, to identify the math ematical structures representing the underlying laws. This Galilean method was the key element in the development of Physics, with its extraordinary successes. Nevertheless the method was later criticized because it led to a view of nature as essentially "simple and orderly," and thus by choosing not to investigate several charac teristics considered as an "impediment," several essential aspects of the phenomenon under investigation might be left out. The Galilean point of view also contains an acknowledgement of the central role played by the causal nexus among phenomena. The mechanistic-deterministic de scription of reality - for instance, a la Laplace - although acknowledging that it is not possible to predict phenomena exactly owing to unavoid able measurement error, is based on the recognition of the their causal nature, even in an ontological sense. Consequently, deterministic predic tion became the methodological fulcrum of mathematical physics. But although mechanistic determinism has had and, in many cases, still has, considerable success in Physics, in other branches of science this situa tion is much less favourable."