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Full Idea
Mathematics is in a sense empirical, but only in the rather Pickwickian sense that is an empirical question as to which mathematical theory is useful.
Gist of Idea
Mathematics is only empirical as regards which theory is useful
Source
Hartry Field (Science without Numbers [1980], 1)
Book Ref
Field,Hartry: 'Science without Number' [Blackwell 1980], p.15
A Reaction
Field wants mathematics to be fictions, and not to be truths. But can he give an account of 'useful' that does not imply truth? Only in a rather dubiously pragmatist way. A novel is not useful.
| 4533 | Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche] |
| 6104 | Numbers are classes of classes, and hence fictions of fictions [Russell] |
| 18159 | Higher cardinalities in sets are just fairy stories [Bostock] |
| 18155 | A fairy tale may give predictions, but only a true theory can give explanations [Bostock] |
| 8714 | Fictionalists say 2+2=4 is true in the way that 'Oliver Twist lived in London' is true [Field,H] |
| 18214 | Mathematics is only empirical as regards which theory is useful [Field,H] |
| 18216 | Abstractions can form useful counterparts to concrete statements [Field,H] |
| 18210 | Why regard standard mathematics as truths, rather than as interesting fictions? [Field,H] |
| 10579 | Putting numbers in quantifiable position (rather than many quantifiers) makes expression easier [Yablo] |
| 8862 | Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors [Yablo] |
| 22298 | Why is fictional arithmetic applicable to the real world? [Potter] |