"The necessity of ratiocination by symbols does carry in its train a tendency to mysticism from which even the keenest intellects cannot always free themselves. ...[footnote:] Some thinkers have spoken of, or alluded to, a certain 'reaction of language upon thought' which results in error or confusion... It is to this kind of illusion or, to... the mental attitude which makes it possible, that I refer when I speak of mysticism, the mystical tendency or bias."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Introductory, with footnote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mathematics_and_mysticism
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Mathematics and mysticism
61 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Mathematics and mysticism →
Related Quotes
"Of the perfection of the number six, which it the first of the numbers which is composed of its aliquot parts. These …"
"What English mathematicians were most intrigued by and, at times, embarrassed about was the explanation Ramanujan off…"
"If a 'religion' is defined to be a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements, then Gödel taught us that mat…"
"Throughout history philosophers and mystics have sought a compact key to universal wisdom, a finite formula or text w…"
"The Pythagorean mathematical concepts, abstracted from sense impressions of nature, were... projected into nature and…"
"Number mysticism was not original with the Pythagoreans. The number seven, for example, had been singled out for spec…"
"When a man counts one, two, three, he is not only doing mathematics, he is on the path to the mysticism of numbers in…"
"Figuration can be one of the values or qualities that the Divine Artificer uses to decorate or adorn the invisible fi…"
"At Babylon... we see a practical polytheism... combined with the application of the exact sciences, and the gods of h…"
"Now this ratio of the single to the double arises, no doubt, from the ternary number, since one added to two makes th…"