Mathematicians value uselessness because science serves evil in war

Evidence

If the theory of numbers could be employed for any practical and obviously honourable purpose, if it could be turned directly to the furtherance of human happiness or the relief of human suffering, as physiology and even chemistry can, then surely neither Gauss nor any other mathematician would have been so foolish as to decry or regret such applications. But science works for evil as well as for good (and particularly, of course, in time of war); and both Gauss and lesser mathematicians may be justified in rejoicing that there is one science at any rate, and that their own, whose very remoteness from ordinary human activities should keep it gentle and clean. — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 247

Categorization

• XREF: Pre-echoes the wartime-tools guilt Hardy expresses elsewhere; connects to the WWI-era pacifist context of the Apology. — connects to: Pure mathematics cannot be turned to warlike purposes — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 277; By the utilitarian test even great mathematicians wasted their lives — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 271; Total calculation in war breeds a stupidity that undermines technology
• SEED: Angle: how the mathematician’s ‘gentle and clean’ ideal of pure mathematics parallels pacifist disengagement from war and its weapons.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 247

Broader Connections

• Pure mathematics cannot be turned to warlike purposes #corroborates (0.90) — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 277
• By the utilitarian test even great mathematicians wasted their lives #contradicts (0.60) — G. H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology, 271