Dear all, This Wednesday at the HPS philosophy workshop, Mark Colyvan will be giving a talk entitled "The Ins and Outs of Mathematical Explanation". As usual, the meeting is between 1-2pm, in HPS on Free School Lane. For an abstract of the talk, see below.
Best wishes, Emily ABSTRACT: The Ins and Outs of Mathematical Explanation Mark Colyvan (Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science, The University of Sydney) Proofs of mathematical theorems tell us that the theorem is true, but some proofs go further and tell us why the theorem is true. That is, some, but not all, proofs are explanatory. Call this intra-mathematical explanation. It has been argued that whenever there are physical applications of the theorems in question, we also have mathematical explanations of physical phenomena. Call this extra-mathematical explanation. In this paper I will consider both intra- and extra-mathematical explanations and discuss why they are of philosophical interest. I will also make some speculative remarks about two promising accounts for a theory of mathematical explanation. _____________________________________________________ Sent by the CamPhilEvents mailing list. To unsubscribe or change your membership options, please visit the list information page: http://bit.ly/CamPhilEvents
