Note 398 — SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY AND LOGICAL PROOF
Reading edition
This we saw (§ 4) is really a mistake: mathematical proofs are really hypothetical, and deduced from the initial postulates and definitions. They hold of the ideal objects of mathematics, but that they can be advantageously applied to reality is merely an empirical fact, and it is not inconceivable that the world should grow more recalcitrant to mathematical treatment, though actually it has grown less so.