Quote#Nature
Nothing is more impressive than the fact that as mathematics withdrew…
Quote byAlfred North Whitehead · 1861–1947
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Science and the Modern World (1925), Ch. 2: "Mathematics as an Element in the History of Thought", p. 46.
English (original)
Nothing is more impressive than the fact that as mathematics withdrew increasingly into the upper regions of ever greater extremes of abstract thought, it returned back to earth with a corresponding growth of importance for the analysis of concrete fact. ...The paradox is now fully established that the utmost abstractions are the true weapons with which to control our thought of concrete fact.
— Alfred North Whitehead
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