“Mathematical activity has taken the forms of a science, a philosophy and an art.”
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
Philosophy : the basics (Fifth Edition, 2013), Introduction
“Mathematical activity has taken the forms of a science, a philosophy and an art.”
100 Years of Mathematics: a Personal Viewpoint (1981)
Excellence: Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (1961).
Variant translation: Philosophy is not a theory but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. The result of philosophy is not a number of "philosophical propositions." but to make propositions clear.
Original German: Der Zweck der Philosophie ist die logische Klärung der Gedanken. Die Philosophie ist keine Lehre, sondern eine Tätigkeit. Ein philosophisches Werk besteht wesentlich aus Erläuterungen. Das Resultat der Philosophie sind nicht „philosophische Sätze“, sondern das Klarwerden von Sätzen. Die Philosophie soll die Gedanken, die sonst, gleichsam, trübe und verschwommen sind, klar machen und scharf abgrenzen.
1920s, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922)
Context: Philosophy aims at the logical clarification of thoughts. Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of elucidations. Philosophy does not result in 'philosophical propositions', but rather in the clarification of propositions. Without philosophy thoughts are, as it were, cloudy and indistinct: its task is to make them clear and to give them sharp boundaries. (4.112)
Source: 1930s-1951, Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 9 : Philosophy, p. 183
Source: "Foundations of the Theory of Signs," 1938, p. 58-59 as cited in: Adam Schaff (1962). Introduction to semantics, p. 88-89
“Philosophy is an activity: it is a way of thinking about certain sorts of question.”
Philosophy : the basics (Fifth Edition, 2013), Introduction
trans. Michael Chase, p. 271
La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (2001)
Source: The Evolution of Civilizations (1961) (Second Edition 1979), Chapter 10, Western Civilization, p. 405
Richard Courant, What is Mathematics?, (1941) p. xix