Applicability of Mathematics

Institut für Philosophie - Universität Leipzig - Workshop Logik und Wissenschaftstheorie  

Jairo da Silva (São Paulo)  

"The applicability of mathematics as a philosophical problem"  

How is it possible that mathematics, an a priori science, can have anything to say about empirical reality? How can mathematics have such a relevant role in the empirical sciences? These, in few words, are formulations of the problem of the applicability of mathematics in science. Besides a technical problem, this is also a philosophical one, for it touches important ontological and epistemological questions. In this series of talks, I plan to approach this problem from both perspectives by means of some chosen relevant examples.  

http://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/files/2014/06/Workshop_da_SILVA.pdf  

1st Meeting Tuesday, 01.07.2014, 13:15, GWZ 1416: The applicability of mathematics in science – stating the problem and discussing some attempt answers to it: Kant, Husserl, Wigner, Steiner, among some others.  

2nd Meeting Wednesday, 02.07.2014, 13:15, GWZ 2116: Some case-studies: Maxwell's discovery of electromagnetic waves and Dirac's discovery of anti-matter  

3rd Meeting Thursday, 03.07.2014, 13:15, GWZ 2116: Proposing a structuralist solution  

Philosophisches Kolloquium: Husserl's Philosophy of Mathematics. 02.07.2014, 19:00, [Neuer Senatssaal, Ritterstraße 26]:http://www.sozphil.uni-leipzig.de/cm/philosophie/veran/husserls-philosophy-of-mathematics/  

Organisation: Ingolf Max (Leipzig) & Marcos Silva (Fortaleza/Leipzig) 

For further information: [email protected]