Mathematics and science

The purpose of this review volume is to present the opinions of a number of distinguished individuals who have given careful thought as to why mathematics is so “unreasonably effective” when applied to the analysis of the natural sciences. On the effectiveness and limits of mathematics in physics / A.O. Barut -- Why is the universe knowable? / P.C.W. Davies -- Mathematics in sociology: Cinderella's carriage or pumpkin? / Patrick Doreian -- Fundamental roles of mathematics in science / Donald Greenspan -- Inner vision, outer truth / Reuben Hersh -- Mathematics and the natural order / Wendell G. Holladay -- A few systems-colored views of the world / Yi Lin -- The reasonable effectiveness of mathematical reasoning / Saunders Mac Lane -- Three aspects of the effectiveness of mathematics in science / Louis Narens and R. Duncan Luce -- Mathematics and natural philosophy / Robert L. Oldershaw -- Mathematics and the language of nature / F. David Peat -- The reason within and the reason without / John Polkinghorne -- The modelling relation and natural law / Robert Rosen -- Structure and effectiveness / La Verne Shelton -- Psychology and mathematics / James T. Towns end and Helena Kadlec -- Ariadne's thread: the role of mathematics in physics / Hans C. von Baeyer -- The disproportionate response / Bruce J. West -- The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences / Eugene P. Wigner (reprint) -- The effectiveness of mathematics in fundamental physics / A. Zee