title: The mathematical description of structures.
abstract: Any mathematical description of structures should start from a precisely stated definition of the concept of "structure". Unfortunately no universally accepted definition of this type exists. All that can be said is that the concept of "structure" is changing together with the modern physico-mathematical thought, so that different 'points of view' on the problem of the mathematical description of structures can be distinguished. The aim of this paper is to compare the explicative and predictive power of these different 'viewpoints' without entering into historical detail, in order to critically examine the limits and powers of the mathematical tools available today.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pessa
mesh_terms: D002965:Classification; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical