Readership: Scholars and advanced students of philosophy and philosophy of science, as well as mathematicians with an interest in philosophy.
Mary Leng, University of Liverpool
"...an original and valuable study, whose greatest merit is perhaps its ability to construct a well deveoped and rich philosophical framework to defend the intuitive idea that the success of mathematics in applications depends essentially on how things are with non-mathematical objects." - Davide Rizza The Philosophical Quarterly July 2011
"The book is sure to generate considerable discussion: as the most substantial work on nominalism to appear for a decade or so, it demands a prompt response from the antinominalist side if the issue is not to go by default, and as the earliest large-scale treatment of an important type of position, it is likely to be the point of departure in debates for years to come. Mathematics and Reality belongs on the shelf of every philosopher of mathematics." - John P. Burgess, Philosophia Mathematica
1: Introduction 2: Naturalism and Ontology 3: The Indispensability of Mathematics 4: Naturalism and Mathematical Practice 5: Naturalism and Scientific Practice 6: Naturalized Ontology 7: Mathematics and Make-Believe 8: Mathematical Fictionalism and Constructive Empiricism 9: Explaining the Success of Mathematics 10: Conclusion
