#thematic

The only thing that might have annoyed some mathematicians was the presumption of assuming that maybe the axiom of choice could fail, and that we should look into contrary assumptions. ↗

— Alonzo Church

#assuming #assumptions #axiom #choice #contrary

The problem is that no ethical system has ever achieved consensus. Ethical systems are completely unlike mathematics or science. This is a source of concern. ↗

— Daniel Dennett

#completely #concern #consensus #ethical #ever

Scientology is not written with disrespect toward God. It doesn't worship something that is evil. It is scientific, mathematical, and spiritual. The black community has to check it out and see what's there. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but you have to take a look. ↗

— Doug E. Fresh

#black community #check #community #disrespect #everyone

The abstract analysis of the world by mathematics and physics rests on the concepts of space and time. ↗

— James J. Gibson

#analysis #concepts #mathematics #physics #rests

Physicists are more like avant-garde composers, willing to bend traditional rules... Mathematicians are more like classical composers. ↗

— Brian Greene

#bend #classical #classical composers #composers #like

My intention here is to make it clear that not a single cell of my composition, here in regard to The Raven, is found by chance or intuition, that the composition moved towards perfection with the precision and inevitability of a mathematical equation. ↗

— Maurice Ravel

#chance #clear #composition #equation #found

It might seem that the empirical philosopher is the slave of his material, but that the pure mathematician, like the musician, is a free creator of his world of ordered beauty. ↗

— Bertrand Russell

#mathematician #music #musician #philosopher #philosophy

What if one were to want to hunt for these hidden presences? You can’t just rummage around like you’re at a yard sale. You have to listen. You have to pay attention. There are certain things you can’t look at directly. You need to trick them into revealing themselves. That’s what we’re doing with Walter, Jaz. We’re juxtaposing things, listening for echoes. It’s not some silly cybernetic dream of command and control, modeling the whole world so you can predict the outcome. It’s certainly not a theory of everything. I don’t have a theory of any kind. What I have is far more profound.’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘A sense of humor.’ Jaz looked at him, trying to find a clue in his gaunt face, in the clear gray eyes watching him with such - what? Amusement? Condescension? There was something about the man which brought on a sort of hermeneutic despair. He was a forest of signs. ‘We’re hunting for jokes.’ Bachman spoke slowly, as if to a child. ‘Parapraxes. Cosmic slips of the tongue. They’re the key to the locked door. They’ll help us discover it.’ ‘Discover what?’ ‘The face of God. What else would we be looking for? ↗

— Hari Kunzru

#mathematical-models #philosophy #theories #dreams

I hate math. It's hard, it's stupid, and it's nature's way of separating spinsters from women who end up breeding. ↗

— Douglas Coupland

#nature

So a) To what extent might human relationship be expressed in mathematical or logical formula? And b) If so, what signs might be placed between the integers? Plus and minus, self-evidently; sometimes multiplication, and yes, division. But these signs are limited. Thus an entirely failed relationship might be expressed in terms of both loss/minus and division/reduction, showing a total of zero; whereas an entirely successful one can be represented by both addition and multiplication. But what of most relationships? do they not require to be expressed in notations which are logically improbable and mathematically insoluble? ↗

— Julian Barnes

#mathematics #relationship #relationship