From July 1979, pages 25-30
The topic to which I have been asked to address myself is a difficult one, if one is to avoid the trivial and the banal. Besides, my knowledge and my experience, such as they are, compel me to limit myself, entirely, to the theoretical aspects of the physical sciences—limitations, most serious. I must, therefore, begin by asking for your patience and your forbearance.
All of us are sensitive to Nature’s beauty. It is not unreasonable that some aspects of this beauty are shared by the natural sciences. But one may ask the question as to the extent to which the quest for beauty is an aim in the pursuit of science. On this question, Poincaré is unequivocal. In one of his essays he has written:
And Poincaré goes on to say,
Commenting on these observations of Poincaré, J. W. N. Sullivan, the author of perceptive...
