“The subject matter of mathematics is the expressions themselves together with the rules for manipulating them—nothing more.”

— Edward Nelson

[Nelson, E., Predicative Arithmetic, 1986, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 0-691-08455-6, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pvr_AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false, 86018730, 14001745, 173, harv]

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American mathematical physicist and logician 1932–2014

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