Solving Wigner's mystery: the reasonable (though perhaps limited) effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences (Q976298): Difference between revisions

In an influential article from 1960 [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 13, 1--14 (1960; Zbl 0102.00703)], the physicist \textit{E. Wigner} argued that mathematics is ``unreasonably effective in the natural sciences''. This claim has been widely accepted by mathematicians, scientists and philosophers. The present article is a historically and mathematically well-informed rebuttal. One strain of the response is that much of mathematics (advanced as well as elementary) has been motivated by problems and theories in the natural sciences. This is carefully documented by means of a large number of examples. Another strain of the response is that mathematics isn't always very effective (economics is given as one example).