Modern philosophy reveals interesting insights into the nature and power of science and mathematics. Some of the philosophers who spoke on this subject were Descartes in his Meditation, Hume and Kant. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Descartes' meditations are about the scientific method. Descartes was a French mathematician and he invented analytical geometry and Cartesian coordinates. Descartes used what is called the method of doubt. He is not skeptical. His doubt is a tool he uses to seek certainty. He adopts this skeptical hypothesis in his research. One of his hypotheses was the dream hypothesis. In his dream hypothesis, he says, for all I know, I may be dreaming. It casts doubt on all reasonable beliefs a posteriori. In Meditation I, Descartes says: “all sensory experience can be recreated in a dream, dream experiences are not veridical, therefore all sensory experience can be non-veridical and therefore subject to doubt.” The mathematical truths and the truths of reason survive his hypothesis. An example in one of the videos was: whether I'm awake or asleep 2+3=5 and a square has four sides. I think math is important to science because it helps you understand the world using evidence. If you didn't have math, I don't think science could work. Almost everything you do in science involves math. Mathematics can help prove science. Hume also spoke about the nature of scientific thought. Hume was a British empiricist. He believed that human understanding is limited and that many judgments considered rational actually rely on other faculties. He also believes that humanity seeks to understand the fundamental principles of science or metaphysics. In the video it says: “Metaphysics attempts to penetrate into subjects that are completely inaccessible to understanding.” Hume says: “The universal doubt would be the doubt of our knowledge”. He also says: “If such universal doubt were realizable, it would be incurable.” Hume advocates limited skepticism. He thinks that the only objects of abstract science or mathematics are quantity and number. This is the limit of a priori reasoning. Abstract reasoning will help you in mathematics. Kant also had a few things to say about science and metaphysics. He believes that the general characteristics of reality can be discovered by pure reason, a priori. He says: “Every possible experience has a certain structure and this structure is the foundation of metaphysics. » According to Kant, our understanding shapes reality, before we experience it. Intuition is what is immediately given to us, these are the Forms of intuition. He also believes that we do not see space. We see things in space and we do not experience time. We experience events in time. He says that objects are intuitive in space and time and Kant calls mathematics “pure intuition”. Time is linear and it's arithmetic. Kant gives the example that 7+5=12 and he says that he can analyze the sum of seven and 5 for as long as you want and you will never find 12 there. He says that it is not a analytical statement and that we must move away from concepts with the help of intuition. Kant says that mathematics only makes sense through its possible application to objects of experience. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get now..