"It is known that the mathematics prescribed for the high school [Gymnasien] is essentially Euclidean, while it is modern mathematics, the theory of functions and the infinitesimal calculus, which has secured for us an insight into the mechanism and laws of nature. Euclidean mathematics is indeed, a prerequisite for the theory of functions, but just as one, though he has learned the inflections of Latin nouns and verbs, will not thereby be enabled to read a Latin author much less to appreciate the beauties of a Horace, so Euclidean mathematics, that is the mathematics of the high school, is unable to unlock nature and her laws. Euclidean mathematics assumes the completeness and invariability of mathematical forms; these forms it describes with appropriate accuracy and enumerates their inherent and related properties with perfect clearness, order, and completeness, that is, Euclidean mathematics operates on forms after the manner that anatomy operates on the dead body and its members."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christian_Heinrich_von_Dillmann
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Christian Heinrich von Dillmann
Christian von Dillmann (December 30, 1829 - December 18, 1899) was a German teacher and school reformers.
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Christian Heinrich von Dillmann →
Related Quotes
"Mathematics, too, is a language, and as concerns its structure and content it is the most perfect language which exis…"
"It is number which regulates everything and it is measure which establishes universal order.... A quiet peace, an inv…"
"He who is unfamiliar with mathematics [literally, he who is a layman in mathematics] remains more or less a stranger …"
"Mathematics because of its nature and structure is peculiarly fitted for high school instruction [Gymnasiallehrfach].…"
"Pure mathematics proves itself a royal science both through its content and form, which contains within itself the ca…"
"Dirichlet was not satisfied to study Gauss' "Disquisitiones arithmeticae" once or several times, but continued throug…"
"A peculiar beauty reigns in the realm of mathematics, a beauty which resembles not so much the beauty of art as the b…"
"Die Warheit zu sagen, so höret oder siehet man selten einen Streit swischen ihnen; es trauen die fremdesten Leute ein…"
"Koeppen’s Buddha was a revolutionary; indeed, the author argues: “‘There is really no question that if the Indian peo…"
"Human religiosity can go far astray, when it is [articulated in the form of] a church."