Topology as an Issue for History of Philosophy of Science
In Hanne Andersen, Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao J. Gonzalez, Thomas Uebel & Gregory Wheeler (eds.), New Challenges to Philosophy of Science. Springer. pp. 423--434 (2013)
Abstract
Since antiquity well into the beginnings of the 20th century geometry was a central
topic for philosophy. Since then, however, most philosophers of science, if they took notice of
topology at all, considered it as an abstruse subdiscipline of mathematics lacking philosophical
interest. Here it is argued that this neglect of topology by philosophy may be conceived of as the
sign of a conceptual sea-change in philosophy of science that expelled geometry, and, more
generally, mathematics, from the central position it used to have in philosophy of science and
placed logic at center stage in the 20th century philosophy of science. Only in recent decades
logic has begun to loose its monopoly and geometry and topology received a new chance to
find a place in philosophy of science.
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2012-03-21
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61 ( #11,509 of 57,039 )
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