scholarly journals On the Explanatory Role of Mathematics in Empirical Science

2010 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Batterman
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Science ◽  
Explanatory Role

scholarly journals Models, structures, and the explanatory role of mathematics in empirical science

Synthese ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Leng
Keyword(s):  
Physical System ◽  
Mathematical Structure ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Empirical Science ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Mathematical Objects ◽  
Mathematical Explanations ◽  
Physical Phenomena

AbstractAre there genuine mathematical explanations of physical phenomena, and if so, how can mathematical theories, which are typically thought to concern abstract mathematical objects, explain contingent empirical matters? The answer, I argue, is in seeing an important range of mathematical explanations as structural explanations, where structural explanations explain a phenomenon by showing it to have been an inevitable consequence of the structural features instantiated in the physical system under consideration. Such explanations are best cast as deductive arguments which, by virtue of their form, establish that, given the mathematical structure instantiated in the physical system under consideration, the explanandum had to occur. Against the claims of platonists such as Alan Baker and Mark Colyvan, I argue that formulating mathematical explanations as structural explanations in this way shows that we can accept that mathematics can play an indispensable explanatory role in empirical science without committing to the existence of any abstract mathematical objects.

In Defense of Perceptual Content

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Schellenberg
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Representational Content ◽  
Perceptual Content ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Relational Understanding ◽  
The Way

Chapter 5 takes a step back and traces the way in which excessive demands on the notion of perceptual content invite an austere relationalist account of perception. It argues that any account that acknowledges the role of discriminatory, selective capacities in perception must acknowledge that perceptual states have representational content. The chapter shows that on a relational understanding of perceptual content, the fundamental insights of austere relationalism do not compete with representationalism. Most objections to the thesis that perceptual experience has representational content apply only to austere representationalist accounts, that is, accounts on which perceptual relations to the environment play no explanatory role. By arguing that perceptual relations and perceptual content are mutually dependent the chapter shows how Fregean particularism can avoid the pitfalls of both austere representationalism and austere relationalism. With relationalists, Fregean particularism argues that perception is constitutively relational, but with representationalists it argues that it is constitutively representational.

The Explanatory Role of Existence Proofs

Ethics ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 97 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-186
Author(s):  
Alexander Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Existence Proofs

scholarly journals Why Do Sport Coaches Adopt a Controlling Coaching Style? The Role of an Evaluative Context and Psychological Need Frustration

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofie Morbée ◽  
Maarten Vansteenkiste ◽  
Nathalie Aelterman ◽  
Leen Haerens
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Psychological Need ◽  
Need Frustration ◽  
Sport Coaches ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Coaching Style

In this study, involving 585 youth sport coaches (Mage = 35.76), the authors investigated whether coaches who perceive their environment to be highly evaluative would report acting in a more controlling or pressuring way. In a subsample (n = 211, Mage = 38.14), they examined the explanatory role of coaches’ experiences of psychological need frustration in this relation. They also considered whether years of coaching experience would serve as a buffer against the adverse effects of an evaluative context. In line with the tenets of self-determination theory, results of structural equation modeling indicated that an evaluative context was related to the use of a more controlling coaching style, with experiences of need frustration accounting for this relation. Coaching experience did not play any moderating role, suggesting that even more experienced coaches are vulnerable to the harmful correlates of an evaluative sport context.

The Methodological Argument for Informational Teleosemantics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Neander
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Proper Function ◽  
Basic Form ◽  
Explanatory Role ◽  
Proper Functioning ◽  
Processing Approach ◽  
Semantic Norms ◽  
Information Processing Approach

Teleosemantic theories are diverse, but they all endorse the claim that semantic norms, to do with correct and incorrect representation, derive in part at least from functional norms, to do with normal or proper functioning. Informational teleosemantics adds that semantic norms also derive from natural-factiveinformation. In this chapter, The author starts with the premise defended in chapter 3–– in explaining how bodies and brains operate, biologists use a notion of normal-proper function. To this the author adds that the same notion of function is used in explaining cognitive (including perceptual) capacities, and then argue that, given an information-processing approach, the norms of proper functioning are thus wedded to the aboutness of natural-factive information, so that a basic form of normative aboutness is posited. This elucidates the explanatory role of positing nonconceptual representations, establishes the scientific credentials of informational teleosemantics, and gives us good reason to try to solve its alleged problems. In the last few sections, the author argues that the main naturalistic “alternatives” to teleosemantics also have apparently ineliminableteleosemantic commitments.

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