An axiomatic system establishes a reverberating relationship between what a mathematician assumes (the axioms) and what he or she can derive (the theorems). In the best of circumstances, the relationship is clear enough so that the mathematician can submit his… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
An axiomatic system comprises axioms and theorems and requires a certain amount of hand-eye coordination before it works. A formal system comprises an explicit list of symbols, an explicit set of rules governing their cohabitation, an explicit list of axioms,… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
In the end, every scheme and every science is justified by itself or it is not justified at all. — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
For all the great dreams profitlessly invested in the digital computer, it is nonetheless true that not since the framers of the American Constitution… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
The motion of the mind is conveyed along a cloud of meaning.~ There is this paradox that we get to meaning only when we… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
“The argument that Hawking has offered may be conveyed by question-and-answer, as in the Catholic catechism. A Catechism of Quantum Cosmology Q: From… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
If moral statements are about something, then the universe is not quite as science suggests it is, since physical theories, having said nothing about… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
“Before you can ask 'Is Darwinian theory correct or not?', You have to ask the preliminary question 'Is it clear enough so that it… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
“What Hitler did not believe and what Stalin did not believe and what Mao did not believe and what the SS did not believe… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
Bystanders wandered in and out of the merchant's stall, passing the time, talking of dreams they might purchase. Workers and slaves stooped from labor… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
“Whatever the degree to which Darwin may have “misled science into a dead end,” the biologist Shi V. Liu observed in commenting on Koonin’s… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
No distinction in kind rather than degree between ourselves and the chimps? No distinction? Seriously, folks? Here is a simple operational test: the chimpanzees… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
The desire to see and the desire to ratify what one has seen are desires at odds with one another, if only because they… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
Every computer divides itself into its hardware and its software, the machine host to its algorithm, the human being to his mind. It is… — David Berlinski Copy Share Image
![“Whatever the degree to which Darwin may have “misled science into a dead end,” the biologist Shi V. Liu observed in commenting on Koonin’s paper, “we may still appreciate the role of Darwin in helping scientists [win an] upper hand in fighting against the creationists.” quote by David Berlinski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0de/david-berlinski-16009_dead-end_whatever-the-degree-to-which-darwin-may_342124.jpg)
