Overview
- Provides accessible analysis of the persistence of Pythagorean ideas in theoretical physics
- Addresses the development of fundamental mathematics and metaphysical issues in the context of mathematical practice
- Investigates the philosophical problems that arise from the way mathematics in used and developed in different contexts
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book explores precisely how mathematics allows us to model and predict the behaviour of physical systems, to an amazing degree of accuracy. One of the oldest explanations for this is that, in some profound way, the structure of the world is mathematical. The ancient Pythagoreans stated that “everything is number”. However, while exploring the Pythagorean method, this book chooses to add a second principle of the universe: the mind. This work defends the proposition that mind and mathematical structure are the grounds of reality.
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Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Jane McDonnell is Adjunct Research Associate in the Philosophy Department at Monash University, Australia. She has doctorates in both theoretical physics and philosophy and over twenty years’ experience applying mathematics in academia and industry. She has authored or co-authored more than eighty technical papers in physics, mathematics, finance and philosophy.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Pythagorean World
Book Subtitle: Why Mathematics Is Unreasonably Effective In Physics
Authors: Jane McDonnell
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40976-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-40975-7Published: 24 November 2016
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-82231-0Published: 23 June 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-40976-4Published: 17 November 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 394
Topics: Philosophy of Mathematics, Mathematical Physics, Metaphysics, Mathematical Methods in Physics