Quote: to get the law from experiment, it is necessary to generalize by analogy

Quotation

In a word, to get the law from experiment, it is necessary to generalize; this is a necessity imposed upon the most circumspect observer. But how generalize? Every particular truth may evidently be extended in an infinity of ways. Among these thousand routes opening before us, it is necessary to make a choice, at least provisional; in this choice, what shall guide us? It can only be analogy. But how vague is this word! ... [p. 282] What has taught us to know the true, profound analogies, those the eyes do not see but reason divines? It is the mathematical spirit, which disdains matter to cling only to pure form. This it is which has taught us to give the same name to things differing only in material ...   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: the true, profound analogies arise from the mathematical spirit that disdains matter and embraces form

Related Topics

Group: philosophy of science   (10 topics, 377 quotes)
Topic: abstraction (62 items)
Group: philosophy of mathematics   (11 topics, 330 quotes)