Abstract
THREE lectures delivered by Mr. Geoffrey Hoyland at Woodbrooke Summer School in 1944 have now been printed as a challenging and picturesquely written booklet entitled "The Tyranny of Mathematics" (S.C.M. Press, Ltd., 56 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1. Pp. 52. 1s. 6d. net). Mr. Hoyland's theme is the age-old dichotomy between the emotional and the rational approach to human problems; but his treatment is fresh, partly owing to his vivid style, and partly because it is unusual to find a religious apologist with a good knowledge of science and mathematics. It is not possible here even to summarize his arguments and exhortations. His conclusion, briefly, is that since the Renaissance, and particularly since Newton and Leibniz added the weapon of the calculus to the armoury of the man of science, we have worshipped at the analytical shrine of mathematics, to the exclusion of the true gods of poetry and religion, which, with science as their handmaid, can alone reveal to us the whole truth about the universe. "If our sick world is to be saved the lover and the poet must take control."
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Science, Poetry and Religion. Nature 155, 359 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155359a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155359a0