“[Oddly enough, Putnam believes part of the attraction of some of these formalisms is their obscurity]. "I think part of the appeal of mathematical logic is that the formulas look mysterious - you write backward Es!"”

— Hilary Putnam

Putnam as quoted in: Julian Baggini, Jeremy Stangroom (2005) What Philosophers Think. p. 233

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "[Oddly enough, Putnam believes part of the attraction of some of these formalisms is their obscurity]. "I think part of…" by Hilary Putnam?

Hilary Putnam 8

American philosopher 1926–2016

Related quotes

“People can be fooled into thinking of mathematics as logical, formal, symbolic reasoning. But this is far from reality...computers are far better at formal computation and formal reasoning, but humans are far better mathematicians.”

William Thurston (1946–2012) mathematician

Foreword to Teichmüller Theory

“We are told … statements that are not mathematical or logical formulae may look as if they were necessarily or certainly true, but they only look like that. They cannot really be either necessary or certain.”

Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) philosopher and university president

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas. One seeks the most general ideas of operation which will bring together in simple, logical and unified form the largest possible circle of formal relationships. In this effort toward logical beauty spiritual formulas are discovered necessary for the deeper penetration into the laws of nature.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1930s, Obituary for Emmy Noether (1935)

“Music is a mysterious mathematical process whose elements are part of Infinity. … There is nothing more musical than a sunset.”

Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer

As quoted in The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music (1996) by Don Michael Randel
Context: Music is a mysterious mathematical process whose elements are part of Infinity. … There is nothing more musical than a sunset. He who feels what he sees will find no more beautiful example of development in all that book which, alas, musicians read but too little — the book of Nature.

“I find enough mystery in mathematics to satisfy my spiritual needs. I think, for example, that pi is mysterious enough (don't get me started!) without having to worry about God. Or if pi isn't enough, how about fractals? or quantum mechanics?”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

Interview at celebathiests.com (June 1996)

“I will ask of you only the ability to read English and to think logically—no high school mathematics, and certainly no higher mathematics.”

Edmund Landau (1877–1938) German Jewish mathematician

Grundlagen der Analysis [Foundations of Analysis] (1930) Preface for the Student, as quoted by Eli Maor, Trigonometric Delights (2013)

“Even measured by Wiener's standards Cybernetics is a badly organised work — a collection of misprints, wrong mathematical statements, mistaken formulas, splendid but unrelated ideas, and logical absurdities. It is sad that this work earned Wiener the greater part of his public renown, but this is an afterthought. At that time mathematical readers were more fascinated by the richness of its ideas than by its shortcomings.”

Hans Freudenthal (1905–1990) Dutch mathematician

Norbert Wiener (2008)

“Discovery in mathematics is not a matter of logic. It is rather the result of mysterious powers which no one understands, and in which unconscious recognition of beauty must play an important part. Out of an infinity of designs, a mathematician chooses one pattern for beauty's sake and pulls it down to earth.”

Marston Morse (1892–1977) American mathematician

Attributed in Princeton & Mathematics: A Notable Record, Chaplin, Virginia, Princeton Alumni Weekly, May 9, 1958 http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/mathoral/pmcxpaw.htm,

“There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won’t happen.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

“Poetry has always been at the margins, and I think that because of its sidelining, this has been a part of its appeal…”

Raymond Antrobus (1986)

On poetry in “Interview | Raymond Antrobus” https://www.thelondonmagazine.org/interview-poet-raymond-antrobus/ in the London Magazine (2019 Feb 20)

“[Oddly enough, Putnam believes part of the attraction of some of these formalisms is their obscurity]. "I think part of the appeal of mathematical logic is that the formulas look mysterious - you write backward Es!"”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Hilary Putnam 8

Related quotes

Related topics