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Antoine-Thomson d’ Abbadie
(3 Jan 1810 - 19 Mar 1897)
French geographer who traveled with his brother (Arnaud-Michel d’Abbadie, 1815-93) throughout Ethiopia, where they studied its geology, natural history and archaeology.
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Science Quotes by Antoine-Thomson d’ Abbadie (2 quotes)
Mathematics, as much as music or any other art, is one of the means by which we rise to a complete self-consciousness. The significance of mathematics resides precisely in the fact that it is an art; by informing us of the nature of our own minds it informs us of much that depends on our minds.
— Antoine-Thomson d’ Abbadie
In Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926), 94.
The mathematician is entirely free, within the limits of his imagination, to construct what worlds he pleases. What he is to imagine is a matter for his own caprice; he is not thereby discovering the fundamental principles of the universe nor becoming acquainted with the ideas of God. If he can find, in experience, sets of entities which obey the same logical scheme as his mathematical entities, then he has applied his mathematics to the external world; he has created a branch of science.
— Antoine-Thomson d’ Abbadie
Aspects of Science: Second Series (1926), 92.
See also:
- 3 Jan - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Abbadie's birth.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
