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The Enhanced Indispensability Argument, the Circularity Problem, and the Interpretability Strategy

Journal Contribution - Journal Article

Within the context of the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument, one discussion about the status of mathematics is concerned with the `Enhanced Indispensability Argument', which makes explicit in what way mathematics is supposed to be indispensable in science, namely explanatory. If there are genuine mathematical explanations of empirical phenomena, an argument for mathematical platonism could be extracted by using inference to the best explanation. The best explanation of the primeness of the life cycles of Periodical Cicadas is genuinely mathematical, according to Baker (2005, 2009). Furthermore, the result is then also used to strengthen the platonist position (e.g. Baker 2017a). We pick up the circularity problem brought up by Leng (2005) and Bangu (2008). We will argue that Baker's attempt to solve this problem fails, if Hume's Principle is analytic. We will also provide the opponent of the Enhanced Indispensability Argument with the so-called 'interpretability strategy', which can be used to come up with alternative explanations in case Hume's Principle is non-analytic.
Journal: Synthese: an International Journal for Epistemology, Methodology and Philosophy of Science
ISSN: 0039-7857
Issue: 4
Volume: 198
Pages: 3033 - 3045
Publication year:2021
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
BOF-publication weight:2
CSS-citation score:3
Authors from:Higher Education
Accessibility:Open