“Any author who uses mathematics should always express in ordinary language the meaning of the assumptions he admits”
in La formation scientifique, Une communication du Prix Nobel d’économie, Maurice Allais http://www.canalacademie.com/Maurice-Allais-la-formation.html, address to the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques (1997).
Context: Any author who uses mathematics should always express in ordinary language the meaning of the assumptions he admits, as well as the significance of the results obtained. The more abstract his theory, the more imperative this obligation.
In fact, mathematics are and can only be a tool to explore reality. In this exploration, mathematics do not constitute an end in itself, they are and can only be a means.
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Maurice Allais 7
French economist; 1988 winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize i… 1911–2010Related quotes

Preface p. v
A History of Greek Mathematics (1921) Vol. 1. From Thales to Euclid

Source: The Principles of Art (1938), p. 268

Das Naturgesetz und die Struktur der Materie (1967), as translated in Natural Law and the Structure of Matter (1981), p. 34

Source: History of Mathematics (1923) Vol.1, p. 90

George Boole, quoted in Kenneth E. Iverson's 1979 Turing Award Lecture
Attributed from posthumous publications

Source: The mechanization of the world picture, 1961, p. 499

Source: Dialogues of the Soul and Mortal Self in Time (1975), p. v

Section V, p. 13
Natural Law; or The Science of Justice (1882), Chapter II. The Science of Justice (Continued)