. . . by natural selection our mind has adapted itself to the conditions of the external world. It has adopted the geometry most advantageous to the species or, in other words, the most convenient. Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that our understanding of reality is shaped by practical benefits rather than absolute truth.
Henri Poincare suggests that our cognitive framework and perceptions of the world have evolved through natural selection for survival. The 'geometry' of our minds denotes our interpretative models, which prioritize convenience and utility over an objective truth. Thus, what we consider 'true' is often merely what is most beneficial for our species.
In practice
In a discussion about how different cultures interpret reality based on practical needs.
When the logician has resolved each demonstration into a host of elementary operations, all of them correct, he will not yet be in possession of the whole reality, that indefinable something that constitutes the unity ... Now pure logic cannot give us this view of the whole; it is to intuition that we must look for it.
It is a misfortune for a science to be born too late when the means of observation have become too perfect. That is what is happening at this moment with respect to physical chemistry; the founders are hampered in their general grasp by third and fourth decimal places.
A scientist worthy of his name, about all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.
The mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge of a physical law. They reveal the kinship between other facts, long known, but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another.
What is a good definition? For the philosopher or the scientist, it is a definition which applies to all the objects to be defined, and applies only to them; it is that which satisfies the rules of logic. But in education it is not that; it is one that can be understood by the pupils.
Most striking at first is the appearance of sudden illumination, a manifest sign of long unconscious prior work.
And if there was no Fall, what then of the need for Redemption? What god was offended and by whom? Some especially touchy cave bear whose skull had been improperly enshrined?
What makes loneliness an anguish is not that I have no one to share my burden, but this: I have only my own burden to bear.
It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.
The book, as it stands, seems to me to be one of the most frightful muddles I have ever read, with scarcely a sound proposition in it beginning with page 45 [Hayek provided historical background up to page 45; after that came his theoretical model], and yet it remains a book of some interest, which is likely to leave its mark on the mind of the reader. It is an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam.
Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.
Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.