It takes so long to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.
Eugene WignerRead
The great mathematician fully, almost ruthlessly, exploits the domain of permissible reasoning and skirts the impermissible. That his recklessness does not lead him into a morass of contradictions is a miracle in itself: certainly it is hard to believe that our reasoning power was brought, by Darwin's process of natural selection, to the perfection which it seems to possess.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the remarkable nature of human reasoning and its evolution through natural selection.
Eugene Wigner highlights the extraordinary talent of mathematicians and scientists who navigate the boundaries of logical reasoning. He marvels at how their ability to reason, which appears nearly flawless, could have evolved from a process like Darwinian natural selection, suggesting that it is a remarkable feat that they do not often fall into contradictions despite their bold explorations of thought.
In practice
During a lecture on the philosophical implications of mathematics, one might quote Wigner to emphasize the interplay of logic and creativity.
It takes so long to train a physicist to the place where he understands the nature of physical problems that he is already too old to solve them.
It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.
The full meaning of life, the collective meaning of all human desires, is fundamentally a mystery beyond our grasp. As a young man, I chafed at this state of affairs. But by now I have made peace with it. I even feel a certain honor to be associated with such a mystery.
The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve.
The simplicities of natural laws arise through the complexities of the language we use for their expression.
The unreasonable efficiency of mathematics in science is a gift we neither understand nor deserve.
Mathematical science shows what is. It is the language of unseen relations between things. But to use and apply that language, we must be able fully to appreciate, to feel, to seize the unseen, the unconscious.
Baboons have the exact physiology as humans do. They also get the same stress-related illnesses, such as ulcers and heart disease.
The chances that your tombstone will read 'Killed by Asteroid' are about the same as they'd be for 'Killed in Airplane Crash.'
When it comes down to it, the reason that science fiction endures is that it is, at its core, an optimistic genre. What it says at the end of the day is that there is a tomorrow, we do go on, we don't extinguish ourselves and leave the planet to the cockroaches.
When the aggregate amount of solid matter transported by rivers in a given number of centuries from a large continent, shall be reduced to arithmetical computation, the result will appear most astonishing to those...not in the habit of reflecting how many of the mightiest of operations in nature are effected insensibly, without noise or disorder.
Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science.
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