Subject: Auguste Comte on Mathematical Methods in Chemistry

From: "Jens Spanget-Larsen" <spanget*at*virgil.ruc.dk>
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2004 13:39:39 +0100

Dear CCL!

In my files I keep the following quotation from A. Comte:

   "Every attempt to employ mathematical methods in the study 
of chemical questions must be considered profoundly irrational 
and contrary to the spirit in chemistry.
    If mathematical analysis should ever hold a prominent 
place in chemistry - an aberration which is happily almost 
impossible - it would occasion a rapid and widespread 
degeneration of that science."   A. Comte (1830)

I got it several years ago from an Internet page, without any 
details. Does anybody know this text? A. Comte must be the 
philosopher Auguste Comte, and the year 1830 may indicate his 
work "Cours de philosophie positive" which was published in 
this and the following years. But what can he have meant? Any 
comments?

Yours, Jens >--< 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
JENS SPANGET-LARSEN         Office:         +45 4674 2710
Department of Chemistry     Fax:            +45 4674 3011
Roskilde University (RUC)   Mobile:         +45 2320 6246
P.O.Box 260                 E-Mail:        spanget*at*ruc.dk
DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark   http://virgil.ruc.dk/~spanget
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=