
Is Mathematics a Science? (2004) - ColinWright
http://andrewlias.blogspot.co.uk/2004/08/is-mathematics-science.html
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lutusp
Wow. The author posted thousands of words, and missed the key difference
between mathematics and science.

Science must be empirical -- it must compare its theories with objective
reality, in practical tests. If the tests fail, the theory that led to the
tests must be abandoned. On that basis, science is falsifiable by reality-
test, and any theory, however well-established, may be falsified by new
evidence, in perpetuity. There are any number of examples in the history of
science where a well-established theory, after prevailing for hundreds of
years, was falsified by new evidence.

Link:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory)

Quote: "The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of
phenomena it can explain, which is measured by its ability to make falsifiable
predictions with respect to those phenomena."

Mathematical conjectures and theorems do not have to be compared to reality,
only to other formal axioms and theorems that are part of mathematics -- this
means mathematics only requires internal consistency.

On that basis, mathematics is not a science. It is vitally important to
science -- without mathematics, much of modern science would collapse. But
mathematics is not itself a science.

Before my readers object that this is all too clearly defined, and (as I often
hear) philosophers are in disagreement about what science really is, I have to
remind people that religious groups would like to teach Creationism in public
school science classrooms, but in order to do that, they have to redefine
science to suit themselves. The key property of science that keeps religious
beliefs out of the classroom are the requirements for empirical tests and
falsifiability. Take away these requirements, and we lose any practical,
meaningful definition of science.

Science is very clearly defined, and it is not a suitable debating platform
for philosophers, or for religious True Believers.

