Is the success of mathematics in natural science miraculous? Eugene Wigner famously claimed that it is. In my previous column (Physics Today, November 2006, page 8), I explored some alternative, naturalistic explanations. By training and temperament, I try to be fair and balanced. For a real argument, we should bring in a lawyer.
Indeed, before accepting the validity of purported miracles, it's traditional to subject them to the cross-examination of a devil's advocate.
Let's listen now as the devil's advocate tries to stir up some reasonable doubt. (Of course, we don't expect her to be fair and balanced.)
“It's no miracle,” she begins, “that clear thinking can clarify things. Nobody, I think, would call the success of mathematics in, say, accounting unreasonable, much less miraculous. It's just clear thinking applied to money. It's useful and important, of course, but there's nothing surprising about its success.
“What seems...
