Realism, Mathematics and Modality - Hardcover

This volume presents the work of a philosopher of mathematics, and combines central papers in that area with an essay on the philosophy of space and time. The overriding concern of most of the essays is with the development of a satisfactory fictionalist account of mathematics. Hartry Field develops and defends an original anti-Platonist philosophy of mathematics which suggests that mathematics need not be true, but instead must be "conservative" and dispensable in applications. In defending its dispensability, Field is led to reassess prevailing views about modality.