CFP: Applicability of Mathematics in Science
Submission deadline: June 30, 2018
Conference date(s):
September 6, 2018 - September 7, 2018
Conference Venue:
Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST)
Daejeon,
South Korea
Topic areas
Details
International Workshop on “Applicability of Mathematics”
September 6-7, 2018, KAIST, Daejeon, S. Korea
Keynote Speaker: Lorenzo Magnani
Invited Speakers: Axel Gelfert
Davide Rizza
Description: The problem of applicability of mathematics in science is one of the most urgent issues in contemporary philosophy of mathematics. Since philosophers of mathematics were preoccupied with the issues in foundations of mathematics until the late twentieth century, this problem has secured due attention it deserves only quite recently. How are we to understand the ironical situation that there is no scientific discipline not exploiting mathematics, while even the 19th century mathematics has not been applied enough in contemporary science? Should we appreciate the intrinsic value of abstract pure mathematics achieved in the 20th and the 21st century independently of their applicability in science? Is it impossible to find a way of fathoming which mathematics could play a crucial role in solving some practical problems? Thanks to Quine, who found the only justification of mathematics in the so-called indispensability argument, there came a turn to naturalized epistemology. Nevertheless, we should go a long way toward naturalization of logic and mathematics. Even though we began to focus on the practice of real mathematicians, studying mathematical cognition, mathematical discovery, and mathematical explanation extensively, there still is an unbridgeable gap between mathematics and science. In order to rectify this uncomfortable situation, and in order to establish an ideal relationship between mathematics and science, in some sense, it seems necessary to return to the Aristotelian philosophy of mathematics prior to the 20th century.
Call for Contributing Papers: All philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, who take mathematics seriously, are cordially invited to contribute a paper of 40 minutes’ reading time. Deadline of submitting a short abstract (maximum 300 words) is June 30, 2018. Full papers are due by August 25, 2018. All communications should be sent to [email protected].