The Physical Origin of Physically Useful Mathematics.

<title/> When Wigner claimed that the effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences was unreasonable it was due to a dogmatic formalist view of mathematics according to which higher mathematics is developed solely with a view to formal beauty. I shall argue that this philosophy is not in agreement with the actual practice of mathematics. Indeed, I shall briefly illustrate how physics has influenced the development of mathematics from antiquity up to the twentieth century. If this influence is taken into account, the effectiveness of mathematics is far more reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]