MacTutorMathematicians Of The Day
20th May
Born:
- 1861: Henry White (poster)
- 1870: Robert de Montessus (poster)
- 1874: Friedrich Hartogs (poster)
- 1901: Machgielis Euwe (poster)
- 1908: Hannes Alfvén (poster)
- 1946: George Lusztig
Died:
- 1782: William Emerson (poster)
- 1798: Erland Bring (poster)
- 1943: Henry White (poster)
- 2010: Walter Rudin
Quotation of the day
From Hannes Alfvén
The difference between myth and science is the difference between divine inspiration of 'unaided reason' (as Bertrand Russell put it) on the one hand and theories developed in observational contact with the real world on the other. It is the difference between the belief in prophets and critical thinking, between Credo quia absurdum (I believe because it is absurd Tertullian) and De omnibus est dubitandum (Everything should be questioned Descartes). To try to write a grand cosmical drama leads necessarily to myth. To try to let knowledge substitute ignorance in increasingly large regions of space and time is science.
