Matter and Mathematics: An Essentialist Account of Laws of Nature - Hardcover

Younan, Andrew

 
9780813236124: Matter and Mathematics: An Essentialist Account of Laws of Nature
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0813236126 ISBN 13: 9780813236124
Publisher: The Catholic University of America Press, 2023

Synopsis

To borrow a phrase from Galileo: What does it mean that the story of the creation is “written in the language of mathematics?” This book is an attempt to understand the natural world, its consistency, and the ontology of what we call laws of nature, with a special focus on their mathematical expression. It does this by arguing in favor of the Essentialist interpretation over that of the Humean and Anti-Humean accounts. It re-examines and critiques Descartes’ notion of laws of nature following from God’s activity in the world as mover of extended bodies, as well as Hume’s arguments against causality and induction. It then presents an Aristotelian-Thomistic account of laws of nature based on mathematical abstraction, necessity, and teleology, finally offering a definition for laws of nature within this framework.

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About the Author

Andrew Younan is professor of philosophy at John Paul the Great Catholic University. San Diego, CA. Michael J. Dodds, OP, is a professor of philosophy and theology at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology and the author of The One Creator God in Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology, Unlocking Divine Action: Contemporary Science and Thomas Aquinas and The Unchanging God of Love: Thomas Aquinas and Contemporary Theology on Divine Immutability.

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Publisher
The Catholic University of America Press
Publication date
2023
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0813236126
ISBN 13 
9780813236124
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
256