William Thurston's quote?












5












$begingroup$



Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or
algorithms: it is about understanding.




Is this from Thurston? If yes, where and when it has been said. I've checked "ON PROOF AND PROGRESS IN MATHEMATICS" and it is not there.






reference-request







share|cite|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 3




    $begingroup$
    Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago
















5












$begingroup$



Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or
algorithms: it is about understanding.




Is this from Thurston? If yes, where and when it has been said. I've checked "ON PROOF AND PROGRESS IN MATHEMATICS" and it is not there.






reference-request







share|cite|improve this question









$endgroup$








  • 3




    $begingroup$
    Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago














5












5








5


4



$begingroup$



Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or
algorithms: it is about understanding.




Is this from Thurston? If yes, where and when it has been said. I've checked "ON PROOF AND PROGRESS IN MATHEMATICS" and it is not there.






reference-request







share|cite|improve this question









$endgroup$





Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or
algorithms: it is about understanding.




Is this from Thurston? If yes, where and when it has been said. I've checked "ON PROOF AND PROGRESS IN MATHEMATICS" and it is not there.






reference-request




reference-request






share|cite|improve this question













share|cite|improve this question











share|cite|improve this question




share|cite|improve this question










asked 22 hours ago









Amir AsghariAmir Asghari

1,22422848




1,22422848








  • 3




    $begingroup$
    Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago














  • 3




    $begingroup$
    Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago






  • 1




    $begingroup$
    Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
    $endgroup$
    – Nate Eldredge
    22 hours ago












  • $begingroup$
    @NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago








3




3




$begingroup$
Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
$endgroup$
– Nate Eldredge
22 hours ago






$begingroup$
Thurston wrote something quite similar on this very site: mathoverflow.net/a/44213/4832 "The product of mathematics is clarity and understanding. Not theorems, by themselves."
$endgroup$
– Nate Eldredge
22 hours ago














$begingroup$
@NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago




$begingroup$
@NateEldredge The quote is wildly attributed to Thurston. I was about to "quote" it in a paper that I failed to find the source.
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago




1




1




$begingroup$
Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
$endgroup$
– Nate Eldredge
22 hours ago






$begingroup$
Zeilberger says that it's on page 76 of Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World by Mariana Cook. The book doesn't seem to be in Google Books so you may have to visit a library to confirm.
$endgroup$
– Nate Eldredge
22 hours ago














$begingroup$
@NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago




$begingroup$
@NateEldredge Great. I'll do. Meanwhile, I am not using it :)
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago










2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes


















8












$begingroup$

This quote is from the book "Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World" (Mariana Cook and Robert Clifford Gunning, Princeton University Press, 2009).



https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8h2



"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding. I’ve loved mathematics all my life, although I often doubted that mathematics would turn out to be my life’s..."






share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago



















4












$begingroup$

I'll post this as an answer since it's too long for a comment. Even though it does not directly answer the question, I would like to mention that a related quote appears in a very interesting dialogue between Rota and Sharp in 1985 (https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00326965.pdf):




ROTA: Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All
science is. Scientists always want to show that things that don’t look
alike are really the same. That’s one of their innermost Freudian
motivations. In fact, that’s what we mean by understanding.



SHARP: You often hear that the purpose of a scientific theory is to
predict, That’s not correct. The purpose is understanding. Prediction
is one way to test whether our understanding is correct. Simplicity,
scope, and beauty are as important as prediction in judging whether a
theory leads to understanding.







share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
    $endgroup$
    – Steve Huntsman
    15 hours ago











Your Answer





StackExchange.ifUsing("editor", function () {
return StackExchange.using("mathjaxEditing", function () {
StackExchange.MarkdownEditor.creationCallbacks.add(function (editor, postfix) {
StackExchange.mathjaxEditing.prepareWmdForMathJax(editor, postfix, [["$", "$"], ["\\(","\\)"]]);
});
});
}, "mathjax-editing");

StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "504"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: true,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: 10,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmathoverflow.net%2fquestions%2f323487%2fwilliam-thurstons-quote%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes








2 Answers
2






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









8












$begingroup$

This quote is from the book "Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World" (Mariana Cook and Robert Clifford Gunning, Princeton University Press, 2009).



https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8h2



"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding. I’ve loved mathematics all my life, although I often doubted that mathematics would turn out to be my life’s..."






share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago
















8












$begingroup$

This quote is from the book "Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World" (Mariana Cook and Robert Clifford Gunning, Princeton University Press, 2009).



https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8h2



"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding. I’ve loved mathematics all my life, although I often doubted that mathematics would turn out to be my life’s..."






share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago














8












8








8





$begingroup$

This quote is from the book "Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World" (Mariana Cook and Robert Clifford Gunning, Princeton University Press, 2009).



https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8h2



"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding. I’ve loved mathematics all my life, although I often doubted that mathematics would turn out to be my life’s..."






share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$



This quote is from the book "Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World" (Mariana Cook and Robert Clifford Gunning, Princeton University Press, 2009).



https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc8h2



"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding. I’ve loved mathematics all my life, although I often doubted that mathematics would turn out to be my life’s..."







share|cite|improve this answer












share|cite|improve this answer



share|cite|improve this answer










answered 22 hours ago









Renaud DreyerRenaud Dreyer

96111




96111












  • $begingroup$
    Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago


















  • $begingroup$
    Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
    $endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    22 hours ago
















$begingroup$
Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago




$begingroup$
Thanks :) I am surprised why my search before posting the question didn't lead me to this book.
$endgroup$
– Amir Asghari
22 hours ago











4












$begingroup$

I'll post this as an answer since it's too long for a comment. Even though it does not directly answer the question, I would like to mention that a related quote appears in a very interesting dialogue between Rota and Sharp in 1985 (https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00326965.pdf):




ROTA: Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All
science is. Scientists always want to show that things that don’t look
alike are really the same. That’s one of their innermost Freudian
motivations. In fact, that’s what we mean by understanding.



SHARP: You often hear that the purpose of a scientific theory is to
predict, That’s not correct. The purpose is understanding. Prediction
is one way to test whether our understanding is correct. Simplicity,
scope, and beauty are as important as prediction in judging whether a
theory leads to understanding.







share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
    $endgroup$
    – Steve Huntsman
    15 hours ago
















4












$begingroup$

I'll post this as an answer since it's too long for a comment. Even though it does not directly answer the question, I would like to mention that a related quote appears in a very interesting dialogue between Rota and Sharp in 1985 (https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00326965.pdf):




ROTA: Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All
science is. Scientists always want to show that things that don’t look
alike are really the same. That’s one of their innermost Freudian
motivations. In fact, that’s what we mean by understanding.



SHARP: You often hear that the purpose of a scientific theory is to
predict, That’s not correct. The purpose is understanding. Prediction
is one way to test whether our understanding is correct. Simplicity,
scope, and beauty are as important as prediction in judging whether a
theory leads to understanding.







share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$













  • $begingroup$
    mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
    $endgroup$
    – Steve Huntsman
    15 hours ago














4












4








4





$begingroup$

I'll post this as an answer since it's too long for a comment. Even though it does not directly answer the question, I would like to mention that a related quote appears in a very interesting dialogue between Rota and Sharp in 1985 (https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00326965.pdf):




ROTA: Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All
science is. Scientists always want to show that things that don’t look
alike are really the same. That’s one of their innermost Freudian
motivations. In fact, that’s what we mean by understanding.



SHARP: You often hear that the purpose of a scientific theory is to
predict, That’s not correct. The purpose is understanding. Prediction
is one way to test whether our understanding is correct. Simplicity,
scope, and beauty are as important as prediction in judging whether a
theory leads to understanding.







share|cite|improve this answer









$endgroup$



I'll post this as an answer since it's too long for a comment. Even though it does not directly answer the question, I would like to mention that a related quote appears in a very interesting dialogue between Rota and Sharp in 1985 (https://fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00326965.pdf):




ROTA: Mathematics is the study of analogies between analogies. All
science is. Scientists always want to show that things that don’t look
alike are really the same. That’s one of their innermost Freudian
motivations. In fact, that’s what we mean by understanding.



SHARP: You often hear that the purpose of a scientific theory is to
predict, That’s not correct. The purpose is understanding. Prediction
is one way to test whether our understanding is correct. Simplicity,
scope, and beauty are as important as prediction in judging whether a
theory leads to understanding.








share|cite|improve this answer












share|cite|improve this answer



share|cite|improve this answer










answered 22 hours ago









GagarGagar

1487




1487












  • $begingroup$
    mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
    $endgroup$
    – Steve Huntsman
    15 hours ago


















  • $begingroup$
    mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
    $endgroup$
    – Steve Huntsman
    15 hours ago
















$begingroup$
mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
$endgroup$
– Steve Huntsman
15 hours ago




$begingroup$
mathoverflow.net/questions/13832
$endgroup$
– Steve Huntsman
15 hours ago


















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to MathOverflow!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid …



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


Use MathJax to format equations. MathJax reference.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fmathoverflow.net%2fquestions%2f323487%2fwilliam-thurstons-quote%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







-

Popular posts from this blog

How to label and detect the document text images

Image
1 $begingroup$ This is what I mean as document text image: I want to label the texts in image as separate blocks and my model should detect these labels as classes. NOTE: This is how the end result should be like: The labels like Block 1, Block 2, Block 3,.. should be Logo, Title, Date,.. Others, etc. Work done: First approach : I tried to implement this method via Object Detection, it didn't work. It didn't even detect any text. Second approach : Then I tried it using PixelLink. As this model is build for scene text detection, it detected each and every text in the image. But this method can detect multiple lines of text if the threshold values are increased. But I have no idea how do I add labels to the text blocks. PIXEL_CLS_WEIGHT_all_ones = 'PIXEL_CLS_WEIGHT_all_ones' PIXEL_C...
Read more

Vallis Paradisi

Image
Coordinata: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap} 33°03′S 71°37′W  /  33.05°S 71.617°W  / -33.05; -71.617 Vallis Paradisi Res apud Vicidata repertae: Civitas : Chilia Numerus incolarum : 296 655 Zona horaria : UTC-4 Situs interretialis Nomen officiale : Valparaíso Gubernium Consilium : municipal council of Valparaíso Geographia Superficies : 401 600 000 Metrum quadratum Coniunctiones urbium Urbes gemellae : Ovetum , Badalona , Santa Fe , Ora longa , Sciamhaevum , Quantunia , Callao , Bat Yam , Melaka , Novorossiysk , Busan , Corduba , Odessa , Rosario , Malacca , Barcino , Soteropolis , Franciscopolis (California) , Guanajuato, Silao Tabula aut despectus Despectus in portum sinumque et urbem Vallis Paradisi Vallis Para...
Read more

Tabula Rosettana

Image
Tabula multilinguis Rosettana in Museo Britannico ostenditur. Tabula Rosettana, [1] etiam titulo OGIS 90 agnita, est stela decreto de rebus sacris in Aegypto anno 196 a.C.n. lato inscripta. Tabula iuxta Rosettam Aegypti, urbem in delta Nili et ad oram maris Mediterranei iacentem, anno 1799 a milite Francico reperta est. Inventio stelae, linguis duabus scripturisque tribus inscriptae, eruditis Instituti Aegypti statim nuntiata est; ibi enim iussu imperatoris Napoleonis eruditi omnium scientiarum (sub aegide Commissionis Scientiarum et Artium) properaverant cum expeditione Francica. Qua a Britannis mox debellata, tabula Rosettana Londinium missa hodie apud Museum Britannicum iacet. Textus Graecus cito lectus interpretationi textuum Aegyptiorum (in formis hieroglyphica et demotica expressorum) gradatim adiuvit. Denique textum plene interpretatus est Ioannes Franciscus Champollion. Ab opere eruditorum cumulativo coepit hodiernus scripturae hieroglyphicae linguaeque Aegyptiae a...
Read more