Essay Abstract
In her essay Math Matters, Sabine Hossenfelder claims that results in the foundations of mathematics are irrelevant for physics, because physics is science, not mathematics. Her argument is based on the possibility of making a distinction between a scientific and a non-scientific activity or domain. Even though physics and other sciences (like virology or climate science) are relevant in larger non-scientific contexts (like the corona crisis or climate change), the distinction between what is scientific and what is not, remains a case by case matter, not something we can do in principle. The legitimacy of physics to be scientific is entirely apparent for the one who practices it, but is not a particular instance of the more general characteristic 'scientific'. In the same manner, climate science is entirely apparent for the climate scientist, less so in a larger non-scientific debate. Mathematics is a domain that has established, through a number of definitive foundational theorems (Cantor, Gödel, Turing ...) what its own limits and possibilities are. On a general level, no matter in what non-mathematical context it is relevant, mathematics has determined on its own terms, what it can and cannot do. In that sense mathematics - as an example, that a distinction in principle between what is proper to one's own domain and what is not, can be established - is highly relevant to science, specifically physics.
Author Bio
Wim Christiaens studied philosophy at the University of Ghent. He obtained a doctorate dealing with scientific metaphysics at that same university. He is currently studying theology at the Hoger Diocesaan Godsdienstinstituut in Ghent.