I love reading old journals and am often struck by the precision and beauty of language in old math and science journals.
Many brighter than I have commented on the seemingly inevitable reduction in rigor as schools require all students to take more advanced math. I think the same thing has happened across the board to language as everyone is expected to complete a high school education.
I recently read a note that had two quotes, both saying essentially the same thing. The first is from Leonhard Euler and dates around the American revolution; the second is from George Box and dated around 1987,Empirical Model-Building and Response Surfaces. Both are incredibly literate and knowledgeable people, and yet:
"Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena"
"All models are wrong... some models are useful. "
No comments:
Post a Comment