Naturalizing indispensability

a rejoinder to "the varieties of indispensability arguments"

Henri Galinon

pp. 517-530

in: Daniele Molinini, Fabrice Pataut, Andrea Sereni (eds), Indispensability and explanation, Synthese 193 (2), 2016.

Abstract

In ‘The varieties of indispensability arguments’ Marco Panza and Andrea Sereni argue that, for any clear notion of indispensability, either there is no conclusive argument for the thesis that mathematics is indispensable to science, or the notion of indispensability at hand does not support mathematical realism. In this paper, I shall not object to this main thesis directly. I shall instead try to assess in a naturalistic spirit a family of objections the authors make along the way to the use of indispensability premises in indispensability arguments.

Cited authors

Panza Marco

Sereni Andrea