Laboratory Approaches to RomancePhonology: Contributions and Challenges to the Study of Sound Variation andChange
Laura Colantoni · TSpace (University of Toronto) · 2015
Since the seventeenth century, physical intuition has served as a vital source for mathematical problems and methods. Recent trends and fashions have, however, weakened the connection between mathematics and physics; mathematicians, turning away from the roots of mathematics in intuition, have concentrated on refinement and emphasized the postulational side of mathematics and at times have overlooked the unity of their science with physics and other fields [...]. This rift is unquestionably a serious threat to science as a whole; the broad stream of scientific development may split into smaller and smaller rivulets and dry out [...]. (Courant & Hilbert, 1953: Preface)