''Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge'' is a book by
Morris Kline on the developing mathematics ideas, which are partially overlap with his previous book ''
Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty'', as a source of human knowledge about the physical world, starting from astronomical theories of
Ancient Greek to the modern theories.
[''Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge']
link from Google Books
In contrast to the numerous theories, that have appeared since the ancient times up to Newton's
theory of gravitation
In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the strong ...
, which are describe different physical phenomena and were often intuitive and can be mechanically explained, but all modern theories, such as
electromagnetism,
theory of relativity,
quantum mechanics, are the mathematical description of reality, which could not be granted with a clear interpretation, which would be available to human senses.
About the concepts that appear and are used in these theories to describe the physical world, we are the only known - mathematical relationships that they are satisfy (for example, an
electromagnetic radiation,
wave-particle duality,
spacetime, or an
electron).
Due to the limitations of our senses capability (for example, from the whole spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation the human eye perceives only a
small part) and the ability to mislead us (for example,
optical illusion
Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual perception, percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide v ...
), human is forced to use the mathematics as a tool that allows us to not only to compensate the imperfection of our senses, but also to obtain new knowledge, which are not available to our sensory perception.
The author brings us to the idea that the physical world, is not what available to us in our sensation, but rather what human-made mathematical theories say.
Bibliography
* Morris Kline, ''Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge'', Oxford University Press, 1985
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Notes
Books about mathematics
1985 non-fiction books
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