Mark Balaguer A Fictionalist Account of the Indispensable Applications of Mathematics I explain why mathematical fictionalism is consistent with the existence of indispensable applications of mathematics to empirical science. Field has tried to defend fictionalism against the Quine-Putnam indispensability argument by arguing that mathematics is, in fact, NOT indispensable to empirical science. I take the opposite strategy: I assume (for the sake of argument) that mathematics IS indispensable to empirical science, and I simply account for this from a fictionalist point of view.