Preview

Discourse

Advanced search

Historico-Philosophical Aspects of Mathematisation of Nature in Modern Science

https://doi.org/10.32603/2412-8562-2019-5-4-5-17

Abstract

Introduction. The paper deals with the philosophical problems of the mathematisation of nature in modern science.

Methodology and sources. The analysis is based on the issues in modern science viewed through the prism of the critique of the mathematisation of nature in phenomenological philosophy.

Results and discussion. It is argued that the radical mathematisation of nature devoid of any references to the source of its contingent facticity in humanity, leads to the diminution of humanity and concealment of the primary medium of existence, that is the life world. Phenomenology shows how the life-word can be articulated through contrasting it to “nature” constructed scientifically. It is the analysis of the scientific universe as mental creation that can help to uncover the life-world when “nature” (as scientifically constructed and abstracted from the life-world), is itself subjected to a kind of deconstruction which leads us back to the life-world of the next, so to speak, reflected order.

Conclusion. The life-world is articulated under the conditions that there exists a scientific explicability of nature. The life-world as it is articulated in theology does require some alternative explication of nature, but, contrary to science, it never leads to the concealment of the life-world. What is common to these life-worlds is exactly that which cannot be explicated by science, namely the underlying personhood.

About the Authors

A. V. Nesteruk
University of Portsmouth
United Kingdom

Alexei V. Nesteruk – Dr. Sci. (Philosophy) (2019), Visiting Research Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth; Associate Professor at the Inter-University Centre on Education in History and Philosophy of Science, State Marine Technical University

Lion Gate Bld, Portsmouth, P01 3HF, UK; 3 Lotsmanskaya str., St Petersburg 190121, Russia



A. V. Soldatov
State Marine Technical University
Russian Federation

Aleksandr V. Soldatov – Dr. Sci. (Philosophy) (1991), Professor (1992), Head of the Department of Philosophy and Sociology

3 Lotsmanskaya str., St Petersburg 190121, Russia



References

1. Einstein, A. (1973), Ideas and Opinions, Souvenir Press, London, UK.

2. Born, M., (1968), My Life and My Views, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, USA.

3. Heisenberg, W., (1989), Physics and Philosophy, Penguin Books, London, UK.

4. Poincaré, H. (1958), The Value of Science, Dover Publications, New York, USA.

5. Weyl, H. (1970), Subject and Object, in Kockelmans, J. and Kisiel, T.J. (ed.), Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston, USA.

6. Davis, P.J. and Hersch, R. (1990), Descartes’ Dream, Penguin, London, UK.

7. Husserl, E. (1970), The Crisis of the European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston, USA.

8. Kockelmans, J. (1970), “The Mathematization of Nature in Husserl’s Last Publication, Krisis“, in Kockelmans, J. and Kisiel, T.J. (ed.), Phenomenology and the Natural Sciences, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston, USA, pp. 45–67.

9. Gurwitsch, A. (1967), ”Galilean physics in the light of Husserl's phenomenology”, in Mcmillan, E. (ed.), Galileo man of science, Basic Books, New York, USA, pp. 387–401.

10. Cassirer, E. (1967), ”Mathematical Mysticism and Mathematical Science”, in Mcmillan, E. (ed.), Galileo man of science, Basic Books, New York, USA, pp. 338–351.

11. Gurwitsch, A. (1974), Phenomenology and the Theory of Science, Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston, USA.

12. Heelan, P. (1972), “Nature and its Transformations”, Theological Studies, vol. 1, pp. 486–502.

13. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1993), “Eye and Mind”, in Johnson, G.A. (ed.), The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. Philosophy and Painting. Northwestern Univ. Press, Evanston, USA, pp. 121–164.


Review

For citations:


Nesteruk A.V., Soldatov A.V. Historico-Philosophical Aspects of Mathematisation of Nature in Modern Science. Discourse. 2019;5(4):5-17. https://doi.org/10.32603/2412-8562-2019-5-4-5-17

Views: 635


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.


ISSN 2412-8562 (Print)
ISSN 2658-7777 (Online)