Intuition in Mathematics and Physics: A Whiteheadian Approach - Paperback

by Ronny Desmet (Author)

Despite the many revolutions in science and philosophy since Newton and Hume, the outdated idea of an inevitable war between the abstractions of science and the deep intuitions of humankind is reconfirmed, again and again. The history of science is interpreted and presented as a succession of victories over the army of our misleading intuitions, and each success of science is marketed as a defeat of intuition. Instead of endorsing the modern dogma that a truth cannot be scientific unless it hurts the deep intuitions of mankind, and that we cannot be scientific unless we tame the authority of our intuition, the authors of this collection highlight developments in 20th and early 21st century science and philosophy that have the potential to support, or even further, Whitehead's philosophical integration of the abstractions of mathematics and physics with the deep intuitions of humankind. Instead of accepting the authority of science-inspired philosophers to reduce and disenchant nature and humankind in the name of our most successful scientific theories, the authors stress the contemporary relevance of Whitehead's philosophical research program of thinking things together - science and intuition; facts and values - to promote the fundamental coherence that is required to start building an ecological civilization.

Author Biography

RONNY DESMET is at present postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Free University of Brussels. Thanks to his background in both mathematical physics and philosophy, his research has thrown new light on the historical roots and philosophical importance of Whitehead's alternative rendering of Einstein's general theory of relativity. He has published widely on Whitehead's philosophy of mathematics and physics, and is currently committed to adding a Whiteheadian voice to the freewill debate.