“The science of probability gives mathematical expression to our ignorance, not to our wisdom.”

—  Samuel R. Delany , Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones (1968)
Context: If everything, everything were known, statistical estimates would be unnecessary. The science of probability gives mathematical expression to our ignorance, not to our wisdom.

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 "The science of probability gives mathematical expression to our ignorance, not to our wisdom." by Samuel R. Delany?
Samuel R. Delany photo
Samuel R. Delany 131
American author, professor and literary critic 1942

Related quotes

Jerry Coyne photo

“If the history of science teaches us anything, it is that what conquers our ignorance is research, not giving up and attributing our ignorance to the miraculous work of a creator.”

Jerry Coyne (1949) American biologist

Source: Why Evolution is True (2009), p. 140

Ian Hacking photo

“Probability fractions arise from our knowledge and from our ignorance.”

Ian Hacking (1936) Canadian philosopher

Source: The Emergence Of Probability, 1975, Chapter 14, Equipossibility, p. 132.

Benjamin Franklin photo

“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Carlo Rovelli photo

“Time is... the expression of our ignorance of the full microstate.”

Carlo Rovelli (1956) Italian physicist

"Forget time" (Aug, 2008)

“The assumptions and definitions of mathematics and science come from our intuition”

Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist

Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)
Context: The assumptions and definitions of mathematics and science come from our intuition, which is based ultimately on experience. They then get shaped by further experience in using them and are occasionally revised. They are not fixed for all eternity.

Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“We should not go to the people and say, "Here we are. We come to give you the charity of our presence, to teach you our science, to show you your errors, your lack of culture, your ignorance of elementary things." We should go instead with an inquiring mind and a humble spirit to learn at that great source of wisdom that is the people.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

On Revolutionary Medicine (1960)

Roger Bacon photo

“Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. … Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus Ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy.”

Roger Bacon book Opus Majus

cited in: Morris Kline (1969) Mathematics and the physical world. p. 1
Opus Majus, c. 1267

George Eliot photo

“Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.”

George Eliot book Daniel Deronda

Daniel Deronda (1876)

“This, therefore, is mathematics: she reminds you of the invisible form of the soul; she gives life to her own discoveries; she awakens the mind and purifies the intellect; she brings light to our intrinsic ideas; she abolishes oblivion and ignorance which are ours by birth.”

Proclus (412–485) Greek philosopher

As quoted by Morris Kline, Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times (1972)

Richard Dawkins photo

“It has become almost a cliché to remark that nobody boasts of ignorance of literature, but it is socially acceptable to boast ignorance of science and proudly claim incompetence in mathematics.”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

The Richard Dimbleby Lecture: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder (1996)

Related topics