George Frederick James Temple: Quotes about nature

George Frederick James Temple was British mathematician. Explore interesting quotes on nature.
George Frederick James Temple: 42 quotes1 like

“The 'language theory' is inadequate as a description of the nature of mathematics.”

George Frederick James Temple

100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)

“As a science mathematics has been adapted to the description of natural phenomena, and the great practitioners in this field… have never concerned themselves with the logical foundations of mathematics, but have boldly taken a pragmatic view of mathematics as an intellectual machine which works successfully. Description has been verified by further observation, still more strikingly be prediction, and sometimes, more ominously, by control of natural forces. Happily, unresolved problems… still remain as challenges.”

George Frederick James Temple

100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)

“Most mathematicians are by nature Platonists who cheerfully, unreflectingly and habitually employ such loaded phrases as 'We assume there exists…' or 'Therefore there exists…' an entity with such and such characteristics. Challenged by the realist they would probably reply that since the truths of mathematics are absolute, universal and eternal it is hard indeed to deny them an existence independent of human intelligence.”

George Frederick James Temple

100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)