Mathematics As A Tool

The first part of the book sets out the Greek manuscript tradition of the Mechanics, resulting in a newly established stemma codicum that illustrates the affiliations of the manuscripts.This becomes especially relevant when the manuscript diagrams are compared with those in the printed editions and in commentaries from the early modern period. In addition, the book’s critical examination helps clear up many of the current misunderstandings about the transmission of the text and the diagrams.

Every contribution can be understood as a piece of a much larger puzzle. Our case studies show that a very fruitful exchange between both systems of thought occurred. Our answer focuses on the practices established by representative scholars. Together, they help us better understand the emergence of empiricism and the inventiveness of the scientific enterprise.

Second, the long proclaimed antagonism between empiricism and rationalism is not the whole story. How can we catch the elusive figure of the empiricist? It is a story of integration, appropriation and transformation more than one of mere opposition. Our answer focuses on the practices established by representative scholars. This book begins with an observation: At the time when empiricism arose and slowly established itself, the word itself had not yet been coined.

With contributions ranging from fields as diverse as the histories of physics, astronomy, astrology, medicine, mechanics, physiology, and natural philosophy, it explores the transformation of the notion of contingency across the late-medieval, Renaissance, and the early modern period. On these bases, this volume shows how epistemological categories, which are preconditions of knowledge as “historically-situated a priori” and, seemingly, self-evident, are ultimately rooted in time. Underpinned by a necessitated vision of nature, seventeenth century mechanism widely identified apparent natural irregularities with the epistemological limits of a certain explanatory framework.

Indeed, there is something fundamentally different in the way an Aristotelian natural philosopher defined a wonder or a “monstrous” birth as “contingent”, a modern scientist defines the unexpected result of an experiment, and a quantum physicist the behavior of a photon. Underpinned by a necessitated vision of nature, seventeenth century mechanism widely identified apparent natural irregularities with the epistemological limits of a certain explanatory framework.

In doing so, it builds a bridge between the East and West and advances a dialogue in the philosophy of engineering. The book’s analyses of the interactions of science, engineering, ethics, politics, and policy in different societal contexts are of special interest.

It includes 30 contributions by leading philosophers, social scientists, and engineers from Australia, China, Europe, and the United States. It continues with a general introduction to traditional Chinese attitudes toward engineering and technology, and philosophical case studies of the Chinese steel industry, railroads, and cybernetics in the Soviet Union..

In accordance with the former, mathematics is assigned an active and even shaping role in the sciences, but at the same time, employing mathematics as a tool is taken to be independent from the possible mathematical structure of the objects under consideration.

. Divided into three parts, the book starts with studies on epistemological and ontological issues, with a special focus on engineering design, creativity, management, feasibility, and sustainability. This co-edited volume compares Chinese and Western experiences of engineering, technology, and development. In doing so, it builds a bridge between the East and West and advances a dialogue in the philosophy of engineering.

In the traditional understanding, a strong viewpoint is advocated, on the one hand, according to which mathematics is used for truthfully expressing laws of nature and thus for rendering the rational structure of the world. Furthermore, tool-use has to respect conditions like suitability, efficacy, optimality, and others. Hence the tool perspective is contextual rather than ontological. In accordance with the former, mathematics is assigned an active and even shaping role in the sciences, but at the same time, employing mathematics as a tool is taken to be independent from the possible mathematical structure of the objects under consideration.