The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics

Two noteworthy papers appeared in the mathematical literature, one by a physicist, Eugene Wigner, and the other, 20 years later, by the applied mathematician
R.W. Hamming.

The first, published in 1960,

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences

and the other, published in 1980,

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics


Alternative discussions of these papers may be found at:
Wikepedia article

and

Jeff Rankin commentary

The first discussion gives a good background on the setting from which Wigner wrote, while the second aims at impugning the original papers' authors wonder at the "fit" between mathematical constructs and nature. It dances around the necessity of starting "somewhere" to neutralize the sting of the realization that, contrary to the popularized view of science at war with theology, both of these disciplines ultimately demand a faith commitment to the subtance of their foundations, though it is true that some theological accounts are more conducive to the scientific enterprise and thus it is no accident where and when the scientific enterprise developed as a self-sustaining cultural artifact. Moreover, there is nothing which guarantees that the faith commitments required to motivate the scientific enterprise will continue to prevail, and some signs that abandonment of these commitments is well underway in the countries in which the enterprise originated.

This is my thesis, and it needs lots of developing. As it stands, it is merely a set of assertions, without supporting argument. I will be back to edit this post frequently, as time permits. Comments and responses will be helpful in developing the argument (or significantly revising the thesis and argument, depending on the comments).