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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Indispensability is a necessary condition for Quinean confirmational holism to extend empirical support to mathematics.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Mathematical theorems remain epistemically justified through proof and internal consistency, independent of whether they're indispensable to physics.
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    • 2.Indispensability conflates explanatory utility with evidential support; mathematics might be pragmatically necessary without being confirmable by observation.
      ?

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    • 3.Alternative mathematical frameworks could prove equally indispensable to empirical theories, suggesting indispensability underdetermines which mathematics gains support.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.If mathematical statements are woven into our best empirical theories, removing them would compromise predictive success and explanatory power.
      ?

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    • 2.Only indispensable components of a theory acquire empirical warrant through holistic confirmation; optional additions cannot inherit observational support.
      ?

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    • 3.Quine's rejection of the analytic-synthetic distinction requires that mathematics share confirmation-bearing status with physics if both are theory-internal.
      ?

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