Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)
“Mathematics is the only true metaphysics.”
As quoted by Silvanus Phillips Thompson, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs (1910) Vol. 2 https://books.google.com/books?id=S_PPAAAAMAAJ, p. 1124
Variant: Mathematics is the only good metaphysics.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Mathematics is the only true metaphysics." by William Thomson?
William Thomson 18
British physicist and engineer 1824–1907Related quotes
Preface, Tr. Bax (1883)
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786)
Sheri S. Tepper
(1929–2016) American fiction writer
Elnith in Ch. 46 : nell latimer’s journal, p. 498
The Visitor (2002)
Mordechai Ben-Ari
(1948) Israeli computer scientist
Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 11, “Logic and Mathematics: Scientists Like It Clear and Precise” (p. 184)
Frank P. Ramsey
(1903–1930) British mathematician, philosopher
The Foundations of Mathematics (1925)
Bertrand Russell
(1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Recent Work on the Principles of Mathematics, published in International Monthly, Vol. 4 (1901), later published as "Mathematics and the Metaphysicians" in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1917)
1900s
Context: Pure mathematics consists entirely of assertions to the effect that, if such and such a proposition is true of anything, then such and such another proposition is true of that thing. It is essential not to discuss whether the first proposition is really true, and not to mention what the anything is, of which it is supposed to be true. Both these points would belong to applied mathematics. We start, in pure mathematics, from certain rules of inference, by which we can infer that if one proposition is true, then so is some other proposition. These rules of inference constitute the major part of the principles of formal logic. We then take any hypothesis that seems amusing, and deduce its consequences. If our hypothesis is about anything, and not about some one or more particular things, then our deductions constitute mathematics. Thus mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true. People who have been puzzled by the beginnings of mathematics will, I hope, find comfort in this definition, and will probably agree that it is accurate.
Robert Maynard Hutchins
(1899–1977) philosopher and university president
Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)
