"Her strength lay in her ability to operate abstractly with concepts. It was not necessary for her to allow herself to be led to new results on the leading strings of known concrete examples. ...[S]he was sometimes but incompletely cognizant of the specific details of the more interesting applications of her general theories. She possessed a most vivid imagination, with the aid of which she could visualize remote connections; she constantly strove toward unification. In this she sought out the essentials in the known facts, brought them into order by means of appropriate general concepts, espied the vantage point from which the whole could best be surveyed, cleansed the object under consideration of superfluous dross, and thereby won through to so simple and distinct a form that the venture into new territory could be undertaken with the greatest prospect of success. ...She possessed a strong drive toward axiomatic purity. All should be accomplished within the frame and with the aid of the intrinsic properties of the structure under investigation; nothing should be brought from without, and only invariant processes should be applied. ...This can be carried too far, however ..."
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InventorsPhysicists from GermanyWomen academics from GermanyEducators from Germany19th-century German mathematicians
Original Language: English
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Hermann Weyl, "Emmy Noether," (April 26, 1935) as quoted in Weyl, Levels of Infinity: Selected Writings on Mathematics and Philosophy (2012) pp. 63-64.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emmy_Noether
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Emmy Noether
Amalie Emmy Noether (March 23, 1882 – April 14, 1935) was a German mathematician known for her landmark contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics.
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