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Whatever our position on the philosophy may be, for all purposes, an object of scientific observation itself in the exhaust all possible relationship to the perception of the subject or instruments. Of course, the perception of simple, does not constitute the knowledge and insights, it must be coordinated and interpretation of some of the potential reference entities, it is a "matter herself," This is not a physical objects directly observed, but there is metaphysics.           Mathematics over Metaphysics     While the contemplative trend of logical analysis does not represent all of mathematics, it has led to a more profound understanding of mathematical facts and their interdependence, and to a clearer comprehension of the essence of mathematical concepts. From it has evolved a modern point of view in mathematics that is typical of a universal scientific attitude.   Whatever our philosophical standpoint may be, for all purposes of scientific observation an object exhausts itself in the totality of possible relations to the perceiving subject or instrument. Of course, mere perception does not constitute knowledge and insight; it must be coordinated and interpreted by reference to some underlying entity, a "thing in itself," which is not an object of direct physical observation, but belongs to metaphysics. Yet for scientific procedure it is important to discard elements of metaphysical character and to consider observable facts always as the ultimate source of notions and constructions. To renounce the goal of comprehending the "thing in itself," of knowing the "ultimate truth," of unraveling the innermost essence of the world, may be a psychological hardship for naive enthusiasts, but in fact it was one of the most fruitful turns in modern thinking.   Some of the greatest achievements in physics have come as a reward for courageous adherence to the principle of eliminating metaphysics. When Einstein tried to reduce the notion of "simultaneous events occurring at different places" to observable phenomena, when he unmasked as a metaphysical prejudice the belief that this concept must have a scientific meaning in itself, he had found the key to his theory of relativity. When Niels Bohr and his pupils analyzed the fact that any physical observation must be accompanied by an effect of the observing instrument on the observed object, it became clear that the sharp simultaneous fixation of position and velocity of a particle is not possible in the sense of physics. The far-reaching consequences of this discovery, embodied in the modern theory of quantum mechanics, are now familiar to every physicist. In the nineteenth century the idea prevailed that mechanical forces and motions of particles in space are things in themselves, while electricity, light, and magnetism should be reduced to or "explained" as mechanical phenomena, just as had been done with heat. The "ether" was invented as a hypothetical medium capable of not entirely explained mechanical motions that appear to us as light or electricity. Slowly it was realized that the ether is of necessity unobservable; that it belongs to metaphysics and not to physics. With sorrow in some quarters, with relief in others, the mechanical explanations of light and electricity, and with them the ether, were finally abandoned.   …Fortunately, creative minds forget dogmatic philosophical beliefs whenever adherence to them would impede constructive achievement.         — Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins, What is Mathematics? - An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods (1941)                 Indexes/10