Abstract This article develops the position that the effectiveness of mathematics in physics is best understood by examining the coevolution of physics and mathematics. Since mathematics in physical applications relates to reality as conceptually structured it is necessary to study the evolving relation between perceived reality, language and mathematics. A brief historical survey focuses on the way this interrelation changed through advances in physics. The concluding evaluation attributes the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences to human ingenuity, not to either mathematical forms exiting independently or latent in reality.
Edward Michael MacKinnon