All practical teachers know that education is a patient process of mastery of details, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Nature is probably quite indifferent to the aesthetic preferences of mathematicians.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Nature doesn't cater to human ideas of beauty, especially in mathematics.
This quote by Alfred North Whitehead suggests that the natural world operates independently of human constructs and perceptions, particularly those of mathematicians who may seek beauty in patterns and equations. It implies that nature itself holds no obligation to conform to our aesthetic judgments, highlighting the distinction between human perception and the reality of the natural universe.
Themes
NatureMathematicsIndifferenceAestheticsBeauty
In practice
Example use cases
When discussing the relationship between art and science, one might use this quote to highlight the contrasting perspectives of mathematicians and natural phenomena.
More from Alfred North Whitehead
All quotes βThe vitality of thought is in adventure. Idea's won't keep. Something must be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervour, live for it, and, if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervour; so the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
As society is now constituted, a literal adherence to the moral precepts scattered throughout the Gospels would mean sudden death.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
I consider Christianity to be one of the great disasters of the human race... It would be impossible to imagine anything more un - Christianlike than theology.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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