/sci/ - Science & Math

>The point of view on which I disagree with most mathematicians resides in the basic assertion that mathematics and the natural sciences — which have recently been separated by this name from the remaining sciences, the so-called sciences of the mind (Geisteswissenschaften) — must not only be free of contradiction, but must also result from experience and, what is even more essential, must dispose of a criterium by which one can decide, for each particular case, whether the presented concept is to subsume, or not, under the definition. A definition which does not achieve this, can be advocated by philosophers or logicians, but for us mathematicians, it is a bad nominal definition. It is worthless.
- Leopold Kronecker