Criticized for using formal mathematical manipulations, without understanding how they worked: Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?

Theory is the essence of facts. Without theory scientific knowledge would be only worthy of the madhouse.

Mathematics is an experimental science, and definitions do not come first, but later on.

Mathematics is of two kinds, Rigorous and Physical. The former is Narrow: the latter Bold and Broad. To have to stop to formulate rigorous demonstrations would put a stop to most physico-mathematical inquiries. Am I to refuse to eat because I do not fully understand the mechanism of digestion?

It is shocking that young people should be addling their brains over mere logical subtleties in Euclid's Elements, trying to understand the proof of one obvious fact in terms of something equally .. obvious.

Criticized for using formal mathematical manipulations, without understanding how they worked: Should I refuse a good dinner simply because I do not understand the process of digestion?

Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion?