Many people do not regard mathematics as a science since it does not directly probe our physical reality; some mathematicians even like to think about mathematics as being closer to art, music or literature. But is there really a big difference between exploring the physical reality and exploring the logical/mathematical reality?
It is perhaps too early to have an open discussion thread on this blog but let me try anyway. What do you think? Is mathematics a science?
(This post was influenced by a recent post on Peter Woit’s blog where he referred to an article by Robert Matthews entitled: “Do we need to change the definition of Science?”)
Updates: (June 18; June 30 ) A related very successful discussion titled “What is Purity” is taking place over “Secret Blogging Seminar”. Ben Webster made the point: “And I think one of the key points here is this: mathematics is not science.” And there is a related post with Sylvester’s writing on this matter in Kowalski’s blog. Update (Dec 1 2015): A related post on Cameron’s blog.
Prof Kalai,
Would like to know what your views are regarding the statement of V.I.Arnold reproduced below from his essay titled On teaching Mathematics
“Mathematics is a part of physics. Physics is an experimental science, a part of natural science. Mathematics is the part of physics where experiments are cheap.”
The essay is available at http://pauli.uni-muenster.de/~munsteg/arnold.html
Thanks
Dear anon, thanks for the interesting (as well as amusing and provocative) link and quote!
Dear Prof Kalai,
Hear is another interesting link that you may like. please note that the author of this article, Roddam Narasimha is a world renown expert in Fluid Dynamics.
http://www.indianscience.org/reviews/13-%20R–Roddam-%20Axiomatism%20-%20checked%20by%20pankaj.pdf
Thank you…….
Nice article you’ve got there. Hope to read more soon.
Ferienparks Holland
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Dpron Zeilberger wrote an interesting essay http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/mamarim/mamarimPDF/hersh90.pdf