Una breve storia dei concetti di matematica e fisica

It is shown that there is no clear boundary between mathematics and physics, and a brief history of the concepts of mathematics and physics is outlined. Not only the scientists of antiquity, but also Copernicus and Galileo referred to all the exact sciences by the term mathematics and used the word physics for the philosophy of nature. In Newton’s time, the unity of the exact sciences broke down, and from the combination of part of mathematics with the philosophy of nature modern physics was born. The article then describes how mathematical physics, which began as part of physics, was pushed back into mathematics by the birth of theoretical physics. Finally, the epistemological status of the current branches of the exact sciences is discussed.