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Full Idea
In Poincaré's view, we try to construct a language within which the brute facts of experience are expressed as comprehensively and as elegantly as possible. The job of science is the forging of a language precisely suited to that purpose.
Gist of Idea
The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts
Source
report of Henri Poincaré (The Value of Science [1906], Pt III) by Rom Harré - Laws of Nature 2
Book Ref
Harré,Rom: 'Laws of Nature' [Duckworth 1993], p.52
A Reaction
I'm often struck by how obscure and difficult our accounts of self-evident facts can be. Chairs are easy, and the metaphysics of chairs is hideous. Why is that? I'm a robust realist, but I like Poincaré's idea. He permits facts.
18203 | Avoid non-predicative classifications and definitions [Poincaré] |
15923 | Poincaré rejected the actual infinite, claiming definitions gave apparent infinity to finite objects [Poincaré, by Lavine] |
10180 | Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations between objects [Poincaré] |
10245 | One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré] |
9916 | Convention, yes! Arbitrary, no! [Poincaré, by Putnam] |
15877 | The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré] |