There is something quaint about mathematicians trying to treat inspirational matters mathematically as though mathematical notation is the same as musical notation. Long before the emergence of Royal Society empiricism, Pascal as a mathematicians noted something in this vein -

"We must see the matter at once, at one glance, and not by a process of reasoning, at least to a certain degree. And thus it is rare that mathematicians are intuitive and that men of intuition are mathematicians, because mathematicians wish to treat matters of intuition mathematically and make themselves ridiculous, wishing to begin with definitions and then with axioms, which is not the way to proceed in this kind of reasoning. Not that the mind does not do so, but it does it tacitly, naturally, and without technical rules; for the expression of it is beyond all men, and only a few can feel it."

http://www.leaderu.com/cyber/books/p...s-SECTION.html


People are having a sense of this certain class of people via Brexit, they don't want a border in Ireland yet want to leave the customs union. The facile objective is to keep the UK aligned with the single market while still making its own trade deals. Everyone else can see it but seemingly Brexiteers can't because it is not in their make-up to see the impossibility of having both arrangements simultaneously.

The point here, even though it covers many topics, is that few people have an understanding of the dangers of doing too much with small foundations or ignoring the great inspirational faculties which balances disciplined reasoning with hopeful projections.