“Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.”

— Bertrand Russell

The Scientific Outlook (1931)
1930s
Context: Ordinary language is totally unsuited for expressing what physics really asserts, since the words of everyday life are not sufficiently abstract. Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.

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Bertrand Russell 562

logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970

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“Only mathematics and mathematical logic can say as little as the physicist means to say.”

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Bertrand Russell 562

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