Heisenberg's platonism

W. Heisenberg was one of the great physicists of the 20th century, and helped shape modern quantum mechanics. Around two thousand years after Plato and Aristotle, and even before the more recent developments of mathematical physics such as string theory, a leader of modern science has this to say:

I think that modern physics has definitely decided in favor of Plato. In fact the smallest units of matter are not physical objects in the ordinary sense; they are forms, ideas which can be expressed unambiguously only in mathematical language.

Hardy's platonism

G. H. Hardy was a famous number theorist in Cambridge, and the mentor of Srinivasa Ramanujan. He wrote a short book called A Mathematician's Apology, explaining his view of mathematics. It is a rather cynical book, devoid of any 'romanticism' about the mathematical profession. Hardy was sceptical of religion, and probably of spirituality in general. Nevertheless, he was a fully-fledged Platonist:

I believe that mathematical reality lies outside of us, and that our function is to discover, or observe it, and that the theorems which we prove, and which we describe grandiloquently as our 'creations' are simply notes on our observations.

Poem

See skulking Truth to her old cavern fled
Mountains of Casuistry heap'd o'er her head!
Philosophy, that lean'd on Heav'n before
Shrinks to her second cause, and is no more.
Physic of Metaphysic begs defence
And Metaphysic calls for aid on Sense!
See Mystery to Mathematics fly!

Alexander Pope, (1688-1744)