Is maths really the ‘language of nature’?
“I seem to discern the firm belief that in philosophizing one must support oneself upon the opinion of some celebrated author, as if our minds ought to remain completely sterile and barren unless wedded to the reasoning of some other person. Possibly he thinks that philosophy is a book of fiction by some writer, like the Iliad or Orlando Furioso, productions in which the least important thing is whether what is written there is true. Well, that is not how matters stand. Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one wanders about in a dark labyrinth.”
The famous quote above is from Galileo Galilei in 1623, which allows us to understand that for a long time have pondered over the idea that the communication of God, the universe, nature, philosophy, and even us are written in the language of mathematics. Galileo comments that truth does not act as a prerequisite for understanding stories, arguing that the language which we rather should understand is mathematics. Maths is a vital tool for us to learn, whether it is a prerequisite for the truth of the universe or not. It may be a tool to understand the world around us, one that is understandable for our brains, but it may only be understandable BECAUSE our brains made it up. Is understanding the ‘language of the nature’ the final goal? Maybe what is also important is for us to use this maths to connect with others through teaching, transcending other verbal languages, in order to create peaceful relations and build a strong social foundation.
