The continuum so conceived is only a collection of individuals ranged in a certain order, infinite to one another, it is true, but exterior to one an… - Henri Poincaré
" "The continuum so conceived is only a collection of individuals ranged in a certain order, infinite to one another, it is true, but exterior to one another. This is not the ordinary conception, wherein is supposed between the elements of the continuum a sort of intimate bond which makes of them a whole, where the point does not exist before the line, but the line before the point. Of the celebrated formula “the continuum is unity in multiplicity”, only the multiplicity remains, the unity has disappeared. The analysts are none the less right in defining the continuum as they do, for they always reason on just this as soon as they pique themselves on their rigor. But this is enough to apprise us that the veritable mathematical continuum is a very different thing from that of the physicists and the metaphysicians.
English
Collect this quote
About Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré (29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912), generally known as Henri Poincaré, was one of France's greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists, and a philosopher of science.
Biography information from Wikiquote
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
Jules Henri Poincare
•
Henri Poincare
•
Poincare
•
Jules Henri Poincaré
•
Poincaré
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Henri Poincaré
In general, the totality A will have nothing in common with the totality A´, nor the totality B with the totality B´. The transition from the totality A to the totality B and that from the totality A´ to the totality B´ are therefore two changes which in themselves have in general nothing in common. And yet we regard these two changes both as displacements and, furthermore, we consider them as the same displacement. How can that be? It is simply because they can both be corrected by the same correlative movement of our body.
Is the position tenable, that certain phenomena, possible in Euclidean space, would be impossible in non-Euclidean space, so that experience, in establishing these phenomena, would directly contradict the non-Euclidean hypothesis? For my part I think no such question can be put. To my mind it is precisely equivalent to the following, whose absurdity is patent to all eyes: are there lengths expressible in meters and centimeters, but which can not be measured in fathoms, feet, and inches, so that experience, in ascertaining the existence of these lengths, would directly contradict the hypothesis that there are fathoms divided into six feet?
Loading...