Mathematics

Jackson Keyser Cassius

Description

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. IN the early part of the last century a philosophic French mathematician, addressing himself to the question of the perfectibility of scientific doctrines, expressed the opinion that one may not imagine the last word has been said of a given theory so long as it can not by a brief explanation be made clear to the man of the street. Doubtless that concep tion of doctrinal perfectibility, taken literally, can never be realized. For doubtless, just as there exist now, so in the f u ture there Will abound, even in greater and greater variety and on a vaster and vaster scale, deep-laid and high-tower ing scientific doctrines that, in respect to their infinitude of detail and in their remoter parts and more recondite strue ture, shall not be intelligible to any but such as concen trate their life upon them. And so the noble dream of Gergonne can never literally come true. Nevertheless, as an ideal, as a goal of aspiration, it is of the highest value, and, though in no case can it be quite attained, it yet admits in many, as I believe, of a surprisingly high degree of ap proximation. I do not mind frankly owning that I do not share in the feeling of those, if there be any such, who re gard their special subjects as so intricate, mysterious and high, that in all their sublimer parts they are absolutely in accessible to the profane man of merely general culture even When he is led by the hand of an expert and conde scending guide. For scientific theories are, each and all of them, and they will continue to be, built upon and aboutnotions which, however sublimated, are nevertheless de rived from common sense. These etherealized central con cepts, together with their manifold bearings on the higher interests of life and general thought, can be measurably as similated to the language of the common level from which they arose. And, in passing, I should like to express the hope that here at Columbia there may one day be estab lished a magazine that shall have for its aim to media

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Forgotten Books
• Date de parution: 27 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780243612659
• Langue: English

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