Quote #12
Mathematical knowledge may, just like our scientific knowledge, be deep and broad, it may be subtle and wonderfully explanatory, it may be uncontroversially accepted; but it cannot be certain. (Ch. 10)
More from David Deutsch
- The next chapter is likely to provoke many mathematicians. This can't be helped. Mathematics is not what they think it is. (Ch. 10)
- Necessary truth is merely the subject-matter of mathematics, not the reward we get for doing mathematics. The object of mathematics is not,…
- Quantum computation is... a distinctively new way of harnessing nature... It will be the first technology that allows useful tasks to be pe…
- Time travel may be achieved one day, or it may not. But if it is, it should not require any fundamental change in world-view, at least for …
- Since building a universal virtual-reality generator is physically possible, it must actually be built in some universes. (Ch. 6)
- Kuhn's theory suffers from a fatal flaw. It explains the succession from one paradigm to another in sociological or psychological terms, ra…
- As I understand it, the claim is that the less you use Homeopathy, the better it works. Sounds plausible to me.[1]
- It is possible to build a virtual-reality generator whose repertoire includes every possible environment. (Ch. 6)