I subscribe to Wigner regarding mathematics place in science. It's not science, but it's a language and tool that we use in science.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wigner
The first point is that mathematical concepts turn up in entirely unexpected connections. Moreover, they often permit an unexpectedly close and accurate description of the phenomena in these connections. Secondly, just because of this circumstance, and because we do not understand the reasons of their usefulness, we cannot know whether a theory formulated in terms of mathematical concepts is uniquely appropriate. We are in a position similar to that of a man who was provided with a bunch of keys and who, having to open several doors in succession, always hit on the right key on the first or second trial. He became skeptical concerning the uniqueness of the coordination between keys and doors.
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https://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/Math...ng/Wigner.html