Workshop

30-31 May 2019

Prague, Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Philosophy

What does mathematics tell us about the physical world?

Modern physical theories are written in the language of mathematics. Therefore, a good practice to follow—according to many—for understanding what these theories tell us about the physical world is to look at the mathematical objects, properties, and spaces that are employed in their formulation. Inferring the nature of the physical world from the mathematical formalism is not straightforward however, and several questions remain open to debate. For instance, how should we characterize the status of mathematical entities and their relations with the physical ones? In what ways do they reveal the nature of the physical world? Such questions have been raised in debates across four philosophical fields: general philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics. They often aim to address the same issues, but from different perspectives and in different terms. In this workshop, we bring together philosophers working in these four areas to initiate a fruitful dialogue on these issues.