Explanation quotes

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Thomas_Aquinas

Reason

“Reason may be employed in two ways to establish a point: first for the purpose of furnishing sufficient proof of some principle, as in natural science, where sufficient proof can be brought to show that the movement of the heavens is always of uniform velocity. Reason is employed in another way, not as furnishing a sufficient proof of a principle, but as confirming an already established principle, by showing the congruity of its results, as in astrology the theory of eccentrics and epicycles is considered as established because thereby the sensible appearances of the heavenly movements can be explained; not, however, as if this reason were sufficient, since some other theory might explain them.”
  • Source: Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica [1266-1273], Part I, question 32, article 2 (reply to objection 2), trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (i.e. L. Shapeote), revised D. J. Sullivan (1952), Vol. I, 177.
Keywords: Reason_quotes Proof_quotes Confirmation_quotes Congruity_quotes Employ_quotes Establish_quotes Point_quotes First_quotes Furnish_quotes Sufficient_quotes Principle_quotes Natural_quotes Science_quotes Show_quotes Move_quotes Heaven_quotes Uniform_quotes Velocity_quotes Result_quotes Astrology_quotes Theory_quotes Eccentric_quotes Epicycles_quotes Consider_quotes Sensible_quotes Appearance_quotes Explanation_quotes

Jim_Baggott

The Veracity Principle

“The Veracity Principle. It is not possible to verify a scientific theory such that it provides absolute certainty for all time. A theory is instead accepted (or even tolerated), on the basis of its ability to survive the tests and meet additional criteria of simplicity, efficacy, utility, explanatory power and less rational, innately human measures such as beauty. Over time the theory becomes familiar and is accepted as ‘true’ or, at least, as possessing a high truth-likeness or verisimilitude. The scientists’ confidence or degree of belief in the theory grows. It is eventually absorbed into the common body of knowledge which forms the current ‘authorized’ version of empirical reality.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 22). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
Keywords: Veracity_quotes Verification_quotes Principle_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Certainty_quotes Acceptance_quotes Tolerance_quotes Ability_quotes Survival_quotes Simplicity_quotes Efficacy_quotes Utility_quotes Explanation_quotes Power_quotes Rational_quotes Human_quotes Measurement_quotes Beauty_quotes Time_quotes Truth_quotes Probability_quotes Likelihood_quotes Verisimilitude_quotes Confidence_quotes Belief_quotes Knowledge_quotes Authority_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes

Robert_Boyle

Good Hypothesis

“The Requisites of a good Hypothesis are:
: That It be Intelligible.
: That It neither Assume nor Suppose anything Impossible, unintelligible, or demonstrably False.
: That It be consistent with Itself.
: That It be lit and sufficient to Explicate the Phaenomena, especially the chief.
: That It be, at least, consistent, with the rest of the Phaenomena It particularly relates to, and do not contradict any other known Phaenomena of nature, or manifest Physical Truth.
 
The Qualities and Conditions of an Excellent Hypothesis are:
: That It be not Precarious, but have sufficient Grounds In the nature of the Thing Itself or at least be well recommended by some Auxiliary Proofs.
: That It be the Simplest of all the good ones we are able to frame, at least containing nothing that is superfluous or Impertinent.
: That It be the only Hypothesis that can Explicate the Phaenomena; or at least, that do's Explicate them so well.
: That it enable a skillful naturalist to foretell future Phaenomena by the Congruity or Incongruity to it; and especially the event of such experiments as are aptly devised to examine It, as Things that ought, or ought not, to be consequent to It.”
  • Source: Robert Boyle, Boyle Papers, 37. Quoted In Barbara Kaplan (ed.), Divulging of Useful Truths in Physick: The Medical Agenda of Robert Boyle (1993), 50.
Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Communication_quotes Obfuscation_quotes Impossibility_quotes Falsification_quotes Consistency_quotes Explanation_quotes Nature_quotes Truth_quotes Contradiction_quotes Proof_quotes Simplicity_quotes Alternative_quotes Congruity_quotes Incongruity_quotes Experiment_quotes Prediction_quotes Induction_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Good_quotes Requisite_quotes Intelligent_quotes Assumption_quotes Suppose_quotes Unintelligent_quotes Demonstrate_quotes False_quotes Self_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Chief_quotes Physical_quotes Quality_quotes Condition_quotes Excellent_quotes Precarious_quotes Sufficient_quotes Ground_quotes Auxiliary_quotes Frame_quotes Superfluous_quotes Impertinent_quotes Enable_quotes Skill_quotes Foretell_quotes Future_quotes Event_quotes Devise_quotes Examine_quotes Consequence_quotes

Fred_Brooks

Software Complexity

“Einstein repeatedly argued that there must be simplified explanations of nature, because God is not capricious or arbitrary. No such faith comforts the software engineer. Much of the complexity he must master is arbitrary complexity, forced without rhyme or reason by the many human institutions and systems to which his interfaces must conform. These differ from interface to interface, and from time to time, not because of necessity but only because they were designed by different people, rather than by God.”
  • Source: Brooks Jr., F. P. (1995). The Mythical Man-Month - Essays on Software Engineering (Anniversary Edition) | 1975/1995 (Anniv.). Boston. MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0201835959. Chapter 16, page 184.
Keywords: Complexity_quotes Software_quotes Nature_quotes Deity_quotes Faith_quotes System_quotes Interface_quotes Human_Limitations_quotes Design_quotes Software_Design_quotes Einstein(topic)_quotes Repeat_quotes Argue_quotes Simplify_quotes Explanation_quotes God_quotes Capricious_quotes Arbitrary_quotes Force_quotes Rhyme_quotes Reason_quotes Human_quotes Limit_quotes Institution_quotes Conform_quotes Different_quotes Time_quotes Necessary_quotes People_quotes

Paul_Davies

Hidden Links

"Finding hidden links between seemingly disparate phenomena is what makes the scientific method so powerful and compelling. The distinctive feature of science is that it is both broad and deep: broad in the way it tackles all physical phenomena and deep in the way it weaves them, economically, into a common explanatory scheme requiring fewer and fewer assumptions. No other system of thought can match its breadth and depth."
  • Source: Paul Davies, Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life (2007)
Keywords: Hiding_quotes Link_quotes Relationship_quotes Phenomena_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Power_quotes Feature_quotes Science_quotes Breadth_quotes Depth_quotes Explanation_quotes Scheme_quotes Requirements_quotes Assumption_quotes System_quotes Thinking_quotes Find_quotes Disparate_quotes Method_quotes Compelling_quotes Distinct_quotes Tackle_quotes Physical_quotes Deep_quotes Weave_quotes Economic_quotes

David_Deutsch

Theory Rejection

“The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.”
Keywords: Theory_quotes Rejection_quotes Explanation_quotes Experiment_quotes Testing_quotes Overwhelm_quotes Majority_quotes Bad_quotes Fail_quotes

Explanation Defense

“A prediction, or any assertion, that cannot be defended might still be true, but an explanation that cannot be defended is not an explanation.”

Keywords: Prediction_quotes Assertion_quotes Defense_quotes Truth_quotes Explanation_quotes

Mathematical Knowledge

“Mathematical knowledge may, just like our scientific knowledge, be deep and broad, it may be subtle and wonderfully explanatory, it may be uncontroversially accepted; but it cannot be certain.”
  • Source: David Deutsch in the book “The Fabric of Reality”. ISBN 978-0713990614. Published in 1997 by Viking Press. Chapter 10.
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Knowledge_quotes Science_quotes Depth_quotes Breadth_quotes Explanation_quotes Acceptability_quotes Certainty_quotes

Paul_Dirac

Physics and Poetry

“How can you do both physics and poetry? In physics we try to explain in simple terms something that nobody knew before. In poetry it is the exact opposite.”
  • Source: Paul Dirac to Oppenheimer, as reported in H. S. Kragh, “Dirac: A Scientific Biography”, Cambridge University Press (1990), p. 258. ISBN 0-521-38089-8.
Keywords: Physics_quotes Mathematics_quotes Poetry_quotes Explanation_quotes Simplicity_quotes Knowledge_quotes Before_quotes After_quotes

Arthur_Conan_Doyle

Exhaust Natural Explanations

“Yet we must exhaust all natural explanations before we fall back upon such a theory as this.”
  • Source: Words of the fictional character Sherlock Holmes. Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the short story “The Adventure of the Devil's Foot”. Published in 1910 as part of the series “His Last Bow”. Online at <https://sherlock-holm.es/stories/pdf/a4/1-sided/devi.pdf>, retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Exhaust_quotes Natural_quotes Explanation_quotes Before_quotes Fall_quotes Back_quotes Theory_quotes

Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

Science Unpoetical

“Science was false by being unpoetical. It assumed to explain a reptile or a mollusk, and isolated it — which is hunting for life in graveyards. Reptile or mollusk or man or angel only exists in system, in relation.”
  • Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson, In 'Letters and Social Aims: Poetry and Imagination', Prose works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1880), Vol. 3, 199.
Keywords: Poetry_quotes Science_quotes Explanation_quotes Reptile_quotes Life_quotes Search_quotes Hunting_quotes Graveyard_quotes Mollusk_quotes Humanity_quotes Angel_quotes Existence_quotes System_quotes Relationship_quotes

Milton_Friedman

Positive Knowledge

“In both social and natural sciences, the body of positive knowledge grows by the failure of a tentative hypothesis to predict phenomena the hypothesis professes to explain; by the patching up of that hypothesis until someone suggests a new hypothesis that more elegantly or simply embodies the troublesome phenomena, and so on ad infinitum. In both, experiment is sometimes possible, sometimes not (witness meteorology). In both, no experiment is ever completely controlled, and experience often offers evidence that is the equivalent of controlled experiment. In both, there is no way to have a self-contained closed system or to avoid interaction between the observer and the observed. The Gödel theorem in mathematics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle in physics, the self-fulfilling or self-defeating prophecy in the social sciences all exemplify these limitations.”
  • Source: Milton Friedman, Inflation and Unemployment (1976), 348
Keywords: Society_quotes Nature_quotes Science_quotes Knowledge_quotes Failure_quotes Tentative_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Prediction_quotes Phenomena_quotes Explanation_quotes Elegant_quotes Infinity_quotes Experiment_quotes Meteorology_quotes Control_quotes Evidence_quotes Equal_quotes Closed_quotes System_quotes Avoidance_quotes Interaction_quotes Observation_quotes Measurement_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Mathematics_quotes Principle_quotes Physics_quotes Self-Fulfill_quotes Self-Defeat_quotes Prophecy_quotes Limitation_quotes Positive_quotes Grow_quotes Suggest_quotes Troublesome_quotes Gödel(topic)_quotes Heisenberg(topic)_quotes

Galileo

Seek the Truth

“For it is too bad that there are so few who seek the truth and so few who do not follow a mistaken method in philosophy. This is not, however, the place to lament the misery of our century, but to rejoice with you over such beautiful ideas for proving the truth. So I add only, and I promise, that I shall read your book at leisure; for I am certain that I shall find the noblest things in it. And this I shall do the more gladly, because I accepted the view of Copernicus many years ago, and from this standpoint I have discovered from their origins many natural phenomena, which doubtless cannot be explained on the basis of the more commonly accepted hypothesis.”
  • Source: Galileo Galilei, Letter (4 Aug 1597) to Kepler, expressing thanks and interest in the book Kepler sent him. As quoted in translation in Jackson J. Spielvogel, Western Civilization: Alternate Volume: Since 1300 (2010), Vol. 2, 494.
Keywords: Bad_quotes Seek_quotes Search_quotes Few_quotes Truth_quotes Mistake_quotes Methodology_quotes Philosophy_quotes Misery_quotes Century_quotes Joy_quotes Beauty_quotes Idea_quotes Proof_quotes Promise_quotes Reading_quotes Book_quotes Nobility_quotes Glad_quotes Acceptance_quotes Nature_quotes Phenomena_quotes Explanation_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Heliocentric_quotes Galilean_quotes Copernican_quotes

Nelson_Goodman

Simple Theories

“For if as scientists we seek simplicity, then obviously we try the simplest surviving theory first, and retreat from it only when it proves false. Not this course, but any other, requires explanation. If you want to go somewhere quickly, and several alternate routes are equally likely to be open, no one asks why you take the shortest. The simplest theory is to be chosen not because it is the most likely to be true but because it is scientifically the most rewarding among equally likely alternatives. We aim at simplicity and hope for truth.”
  • Source: Nelson Goodman, Problems and Projects (1972), 352.
Keywords: Science_quotes Simplicity_quotes Survival_quotes Theory_quotes Falsification_quotes Explanation_quotes Quick_quotes Reward_quotes Alternative_quotes Hope_quotes Truth_quotes Occams_Razor_quotes Retreat_quotes Proof_quotes False_quotes Course_quotes Go_quotes Several_quotes Route_quotes Equal_quotes Probable_quotes Likely_quotes

John_Gribbin

Scientific Method

“The Big Idea that had been developed in the seventeenth century ... is now known as the scientific method. It says that the way to proceed when investigating how the world works is to first carry out experiments and/or make observations of the natural world. Then, develop hypotheses to explain these observations, and (crucially) use the hypothesis to make predictions about the future outcome of future experiments and/or observations. After comparing the results of those new observations with the predictions of the hypotheses, discard those hypotheses which make false predictions, and retain (at least, for the time being) any hypothesis that makes accurate predictions, elevating it to the status of a theory. Note that a theory can never be proved right. The best that can be said is that it has passed all the tests applied so far.”
  • Source: John R. Gribbin. In The Fellowship: the Story of a Revolution (2005), 275.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Idea_quotes Development_quotes Investigation_quotes World_quotes Experiment_quotes Observation_quotes Prediction_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Explanation_quotes Future_quotes Result_quotes Falsification_quotes Accuracy_quotes Theory_quotes Proof_quotes Testing_quotes Certainty_quotes Uncertainty_quotes Nature_quotes False_quotes Retain_quotes Discard_quotes Elevate_quotes Pass_quotes Test_quotes

Douglas_Hofstadter

Strange Consciousness

“My belief is that the explanations of emergent phenomena in our brains — for instance, ideas, hopes, images, analogies, and finally consciousness and free will — are based on a kind of Strange Loop, an interaction between levels in which the top loop reaches back down towards the bottom level and influences it, while at the same time being itself determined by the bottom level. In other words, a self-reinforcing resonance between different levels.”
  • Source: Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979). Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. Written by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Basic Books, New York, NY. ISBN 13: 978-046502656-2. ISBN 10: 046502656-7. Chapter 20. Page 709.
Keywords: Belief_quotes Explanation_quotes Emergent_quotes Phenomena_quotes Brain_quotes Idea_quotes Hope_quotes Image_quotes Analogy_quotes Consciousness_quotes Free_Will_quotes Strange_Loop_quotes Interaction_quotes Level_quotes Loop_quotes Top_quotes Bottom_quotes Influence_quotes Determine_quotes Reinforce_quotes Resonance_quotes Self_quotes Different_quotes

Sabine_Hossenfelder

Closer Reality

“The foundations of physics give us a closer look at reality, but the closer we look at reality, the more slippery it becomes. Our heavy use of mathematics is a major reason. The more the fundamental descriptions of nature have become divorced from our everyday experience, the more we must rely on mathematical rigor. This reliance has consequences. Using math to describe reality means that the same observations can be equivalently explained in many different ways. That’s just because there are many sets of mathematical axioms that will give the exact same predictions for all available data. Thus, if you want to assign 'reality' to one of your explanations, you won’t know which.”
  • Source: Hossenfelder, Sabine. Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions (p. 74). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Keywords: Foundation_quotes Physics_quotes Closer_quotes Reality_quotes Slippery_quotes Heavy_quotes Mathematics_quotes Major_quotes Reason_quotes Fundamental_quotes Description_quotes Nature_quotes Divorce_quotes Everyday_quotes Experience_quotes Rely_quotes Rigor_quotes Consequence_quotes Observation_quotes Same_quotes Equivalent_quotes Explanation_quotes Different_quotes Way_quotes Set_quotes Axiom_quotes Exact_quotes Prediction_quotes Available_quotes Data_quotes Assign_quotes Know_quotes

Fred_Hoyle

Scientific Hypotheses

“It is often held that scientific hypotheses are constructed, and are to be constructed, only after a detailed weighing of all possible evidence bearing on the matter, and that then and only then may one consider, and still only tentatively, any hypotheses. This traditional view however, is largely incorrect, for not only is it absurdly impossible of application, but it is contradicted by the history of the development of any scientific theory. What happens in practice is that by intuitive insight, or other inexplicable inspiration, the theorist decides that certain features seem to him more important than others and capable of explanation by certain hypotheses. Then basing his study on these hypotheses the attempt is made to deduce their consequences. The successful pioneer of theoretical science is he whose intuitions yield hypotheses on which satisfactory theories can be built, and conversely for the unsuccessful (as judged from a purely scientific standpoint).”
  • Source: Sir Fred Hoyle, Co-author with British astronomer, Raymond Arthur Lyttleton (1911-95), 'The Internal Constitution of the Stars', Occasional Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society 1948, 12, 90.
Keywords: Science_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Construction_quotes Weighing_quotes Evidence_quotes Consideration_quotes Absurdity_quotes Impossibility_quotes Contradiction_quotes History_quotes Theory_quotes Intuition_quotes Inspiration_quotes Inexplicable_quotes Importance_quotes Explanation_quotes Study_quotes Deduction_quotes Consequence_quotes Success_quotes Tradition_quotes Insight_quotes Feature_quotes Pioneer_quotes Satisfactory_quotes Unsuccessful_quotes

Edwin_Hubble

Scientific Judgments

“Science deals with judgments on which it is possible to obtain universal agreement. These judgments do not concern individual facts and events, but the invariable association of facts and events known as the laws of science. Agreement is secured by observation and experiment — impartial courts of appeal to which all men must submit if they wish to survive. The laws are grouped and explained by theories of ever increasing generality. The theories at first are ex post facto — merely plausible interpretations of existing bodies of data. However, they frequently lead to predictions that can be tested by experiments and observations in new fields, and, if the interpretations are verified, the theories are accepted as working hypotheses until they prove untenable. The essential requirements are agreement on the subject matter and the verification of predictions. These features insure a body of positive knowledge that can be transmitted from person to person, and that accumulates from generation to generation.”
  • Source: Edwin Powell Hubble. From manuscript on English Science in the Renaissance (1937), Edwin Hubble collection, Box 2, Huntington Library, San Marino, California. As cited by Norriss S. Hetherington in 'Philosophical Values and Observation in Edwin Hubble's Choice of a Model of the Universe', Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences (1982), 13, No. 1, 41. (Hetherington comments parenthetically that the references to court, judgment and appeal may be attributable to his prior experiences as a Rhodes Scholar reading Roman law at Oxford, and to a year's practice as an attorney in Louisville, Kentucky.)
Keywords: Science_quotes Judgment_quotes Universal_quotes Agreement_quotes Survival_quotes Fact_quotes Association_quotes Event_quotes Law_quotes Observation_quotes Experiment_quotes Court_quotes Explanation_quotes Theory_quotes Generality_quotes Ex_Post_quotes Plausibility_quotes Interpretation_quotes Data_quotes Prediction_quotes Verification_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Falsification_quotes Proof_quotes Requirements_quotes Feature_quotes Positive_quotes Knowledge_quotes Transmission_quotes Accumulation_quotes Generation_quotes

Daniel_Kahneman

Unpredictable Future

“The idea that the future is unpredictable is undermined every day by the ease with which the past is explained.”
Keywords: Idea_quotes Future_quotes Prediction_quotes Undermine_quotes Day_quotes Easy_quotes Past_quotes Explanation_quotes

Alister_McGrath

Why is the Kettle Boiling?

“The distinguished geologist Frank Rhodes made this point back in 1965, using the analogy of a boiling kettle. So why is the kettle boiling? Rhodes notes that two types of explanation might be given. At the scientific level, energy is being supplied, which raises the temperature of the water to its boiling point. Yet another answer can be given. 'The kettle is boiling because I put it on to make a cup of tea.' Rhodes makes a point which some of you may find predictable, but is none the less important. Here is what he says: 'Now these are different answers. But both are true, both are complementary and not competitive. One answer is appropriate within a particular frame of reference, the other within another frame of reference. There is a sense in which each is incomplete without the other.”
  • Note: Frank Rhodes gave credit for the kettle analogy to Dr. Douglas Spanner.
Keywords: Geology_quotes Analogy_quotes Boil_quotes Kettle_quotes Explanation_quotes Science_quotes Energy_quotes Level_quotes Temperature_quotes Water_quotes Answer_quotes Cup_quotes Tea_quotes Prediction_quotes Importance_quotes Differences_quotes True_quotes Complement_quotes Competition_quotes Appropriate_quotes Frame_quotes Reference_quotes Incomplete_quotes Perspective_quotes Bias_quotes Requirements_quotes Rhodes(topic)_quotes

Henry_Louis_Mencken

Explanations

“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.”
  • Source: In the article entitled 'The Divine Afflatus' by Henry Louis Mencken, published in the New York Evening Mail, 16 November 1917.
Keywords: Explanation_quotes Existence_quotes Time_quotes Knowledge_quotes Solution_quotes Problem_quotes Humanity_quotes Neat_quotes Plausible_quotes Wrong_quotes

Ernest_Nagel

Explanations

“It is the desire for explanations that are at once systematic and controllable by factual evidence that generates science; and it is the organization and classification of knowledge on the basis of explanatory principles that is the distinctive goal of the sciences.”
  • Source: Ernest Nagel, The Structure of Science (1961), 4.
Keywords: Desire_quotes Explanation_quotes System_quotes Control_quotes Fact_quotes Evidence_quotes Generation_quotes Science_quotes Organization_quotes Class_quotes Knowledge_quotes Principle_quotes Distinct_quotes Goal_quotes

John_von_Neumann

Science Models

“The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models. By a model is meant a mathematical construct which, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work — that is, correctly to describe phenomena from a reasonably wide area.”
  • Source: John von Neumann, 'Method in the Physical Sciences', in The Unity of Knowledge, edited by L. Leary (1955), 158. Reprinted in John Von Neumann, F. Bródy (ed.) and Tibor Vámos (ed.), The Neumann Compendium (2000), 628.
Keywords: Science_quotes Explanation_quotes Mathematics_quotes Construct_quotes Sole_quotes Precision_quotes Expectation_quotes Work_quotes Correctness_quotes Description_quotes Phenomena_quotes Reason_quotes Wide_quotes Area_quotes Interpret_quotes Model_quotes Verbal_quotes Observation_quotes Justification_quotes Correct_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Listening

“If a listener nods his head when you're explaining your program, wake him up.”
Keywords: Listening_quotes Nod_quotes Head_quotes Explanation_quotes Program_quotes Sleep_quotes Wake_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Neurons to Consciousness

“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes

Outside Psychology

“Psychologists have to look outside psychology if they want to explain what the parts of the mind are for.”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 1 Section Reverse-Engineering the Psyche.
Keywords: Psychology_quotes Look_quotes Outside_quotes Explanation_quotes Part_quotes Mind_quotes

Mind and Soul

“The traditional explanation of intelligence is that human flesh is suffused with a non-material entity, the soul, usually envisioned as some kind of ghost or spirit. But the theory faces an insurmountable problem: How does the spook interact with solid matter? How does an ethereal nothing respond to flashes, pokes, and beeps and get arms and legs to move? Another problem is the overwhelming evidence that the mind is the activity of the brain.”
  • Source: Steven Pinker (1997). How the Mind Works. New York, NY: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-06973-0; eISBN 978-0-393-06973-0. Chapter 2 The search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.
Keywords: Tradition_quotes Explanation_quotes Intelligence_quotes Human_quotes Flesh_quotes Suffuse_quotes Non-Material_quotes Material_quotes Entity_quotes Envision_quotes Kind_quotes Ghost_quotes Spirit_quotes Theory_quotes Insurmountable_quotes Problem_quotes Spook_quotes Interaction_quotes Solid_quotes Matter_quotes Ethereal_quotes Nothing_quotes Respond_quotes Flash_quotes Poke_quotes Beep_quotes Arm_quotes Leg_quotes Movement_quotes Overwhelm_quotes Evidence_quotes Mind_quotes Activity_quotes Brain_quotes Soul_quotes

Stipulation

“But the last dollop in the theory — that it subjectively feels like something to be such circuitry — may have to be stipulated as a fact about reality where explanation stops.”
  • Source: Steven Pinker in the book Enlightenment Now. Published in 2018 by Penguin Random House, New York, NY. ISBN:978-0525559023. Chapter 23.
  • Notes: Part of the Stipulation Problem of Consciousness.
Keywords: Last_quotes Dollop_quotes Theory_quotes Subjective_quotes Feel_quotes Circuit_quotes Stipulate_quotes Fact_quotes Reality_quotes Explanation_quotes Stop_quotes Consciousness_quotes

Plato

Opinion Explanation

“All those who have a right opinion about anything will also have right explanation, nor will right opinion be anywhere found to exist apart from knowledge.”
Keywords: Right_quotes Opinion_quotes Anything_quotes Explanation_quotes Truth_quotes Anywhere_quotes Find_quotes Exist_quotes Knowledge_quotes

Karl_Popper

Science Not Certain

“Science is not a system of certain, or established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality... And our guesses are guided by the unscientific, the metaphysical (though biologically explicable) faith in laws, in regularities which we can uncover — discover. Like Bacon, we might describe our own contemporary science — 'the method of reasoning which men now ordinarily apply to nature' — as consisting of 'anticipations, rash and premature' and as 'prejudices'.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), 278.
Keywords: Science_quotes System_quotes Certainty_quotes Establish_quotes Statement_quotes Steady_quotes Advance_quotes State_quotes Final_quotes Guess_quotes Guide_quotes Unscientific_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Biology_quotes Explanation_quotes Faith_quotes Law_quotes Regular_quotes Uncover_quotes Discovery_quotes Description_quotes Contemporary_quotes Methodology_quotes Reason_quotes Humanity_quotes Ordinary_quotes Apply_quotes Nature_quotes Consist_quotes Anticipation_quotes Rash_quotes Premature_quotes Prejudice_quotes Bacon(topic)_quotes

Explain Away

“Whenever the ‘classical’ system of the day is threatened by the results of new experiments which might be interpreted as falsifications according to my point of view, the system will appear unshaken to the conventionalist. He will explain away the inconsistencies which may have arisen; perhaps by blaming our inadequate mastery of the system.”
  • Source: Popper, K. R. (2005). The Logic of Scientific Discovery | 1935 (1935/Epub ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Keywords: Classical_quotes System_quotes Day_quotes Threat_quotes Result_quotes New_quotes Experiment_quotes Interpretation_quotes Falsification_quotes According_quotes Point_of_View_quotes Appearance_quotes Unshaken_quotes Convention_quotes Explanation_quotes Inconsistent_quotes Arise_quotes Blame_quotes Inadequate_quotes Mastery_quotes

Scientific Knowledge

“If the picture of the world which modern science draws comes anywhere near the truth — in other words, if we have anything like ‘scientific knowledge’ — then the conditions obtaining almost everywhere in the universe make the discovery of structural laws of the kind we are seeking — and thus the attainment of ‘scientific knowledge’ — almost impossible. For almost all regions of the universe are filled by chaotic radiation, and almost all the rest by matter in a likewise chaotic state. In spite of this, science has been miraculously successful in proceeding toward what I think should be regarded as its aim. This strange fact cannot, I think, be explained without proving too much. But it can encourage us to pursue that aim, even though we may not get any further encouragement to believe that we can actually attain it; neither from metaphysical realism nor from any other source.”
  • Source: Realism and the Aim of Science: From the Postscript to The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1983, p. 146, ISBN 0415084008
Keywords: Picture_quotes World_quotes Modern_quotes Science_quotes Truth_quotes Knowledge_quotes Condition_quotes Obtain_quotes Universe_quotes Discovery_quotes Structure_quotes Kind_quotes Seek_quotes Attain_quotes Impossibility_quotes Region_quotes Chaos_quotes Radiation_quotes Matter_quotes Miracle_quotes Success_quotes Progress_quotes Aim_quotes Strange_quotes Fact_quotes Explanation_quotes Proof_quotes Encouragement_quotes Pursuit_quotes Belief_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Realism_quotes Source_quotes Law_quotes

George_Sarton

Science an Outgrowth of Life

“Abstract as it is, science is but an outgrowth of life. That is what the teacher must continually keep in mind. ... Let him explain ... science is not a dead system — the excretion of a monstrous pedantism — but really one of the most vigorous and exuberant phases of human life.”
  • Source: George (Alfred Léon) Sarton, In 'The Teaching of the History of Science', The Scientific Monthly (Sep 1918), 195-196.
Keywords: Abstraction_quotes Science_quotes Life_quotes Teaching_quotes Mind_quotes Explanation_quotes Dead_quotes System_quotes Excretion_quotes Outgrowth_quotes Monster_quotes Pedantism_quotes Vigor_quotes Exuberant_quotes Humanity_quotes

Scientific Progress

“No history of civilization can be tolerably complete which does not give considerable space to the explanation of scientific progress. If we had any doubts about this, it would suffice to ask ourselves what constitutes the essential difference between our and earlier civilizations. Throughout the course of history, in every period, and in almost every country, we find a small number of saints, of great artists, of men of science. The saints of today are not necessarily more saintly than those of a thousand years ago; our artists are not necessarily greater than those of early Greece; they are more likely to be inferior; and of course, our men of science are not necessarily more intelligent than those of old; yet one thing is certain, their knowledge is at once more extensive and more accurate. The acquisition and systematization of positive knowledge is the only human activity which is truly cumulative and progressive. Our civilization is essentially different from earlier ones, because our knowledge of the world and of ourselves is deeper, more precise, and more certain, because we have gradually learned to disentangle the forces of nature, and because we have contrived, by strict obedience to their laws, to capture them and to divert them to the gratification of our own needs.”
  • Source: George (Alfred Léon) Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science (1927), Vol. 1, 3-4.
Keywords: History_quotes Civilization_quotes Tolerance_quotes Completion_quotes Explanation_quotes Science_quotes Progress_quotes Doubt_quotes Sufficient_quotes Constitute_quotes Essential_quotes Differences_quotes Early_quotes Course_quotes Period_quotes Country_quotes Small_quotes Saint_quotes Great_quotes Art_quotes Intelligence_quotes Old_quotes Year_quotes Greece_quotes Inferior_quotes Knowledge_quotes Extension_quotes Accuracy_quotes Acquire_quotes System_quotes Positive_quotes Humanity_quotes Activity_quotes True_quotes Cumulative_quotes World_quotes Depth_quotes Precision_quotes Certainty_quotes Gradual_quotes Learning_quotes Disentangle_quotes Force_quotes Nature_quotes Contrive_quotes Strict_quotes Obedience_quotes Law_quotes Capture_quotes Divergence_quotes Gratify_quotes Need_quotes Progressive_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Intuition

“Intuition is a genuine enough phenomenon which can be explained rather simply: most intuitive leaps are acts of recognition.”
Keywords: Intuition_quotes Genuine_quotes Phenomena_quotes Explanation_quotes Leap_quotes Act_quotes Recognition_quotes Simplicity_quotes

John_Archibald_Wheeler

It From Bit

“It from bit symbolizes the idea that every item of the physical world has at bottom — at a very deep bottom, in most instances — an immaterial source and explanation; that which we call reality arises in the last analysis from the posing of yes-no questions and the registering of equipment-evoked responses; in short, that all things physical are information-theoretic in origin and that this is a participatory universe.”
  • Source: John Archibald Wheeler from a paper originally presented at the 1989 Santa Fe Institute workshop. Published in the book "Complexity, Entropy & the Physics of Information: Volume I", edited by Wojciech H. Zurek, section "Physics of information", as a paper entitled "Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links". Published in 1993 by the SFI Press Archive Series. ISBN: 978-1-947864-27-6.
Keywords: It_quotes Bit_quotes Symbolize_quotes Idea_quotes Every_quotes Item_quotes Physical_quotes World_quotes Bottom_quotes Deep_quotes Immaterial_quotes Source_quotes Explanation_quotes Call_quotes Reality_quotes Arise_quotes Last_quotes Analysis_quotes Pose_quotes Yes_quotes No_quotes Question_quotes Register_quotes Equipment_quotes Evoke_quotes Response_quotes Thing_quotes Information_quotes Theoretic_quotes Origin_quotes Participatory_quotes Universe_quotes

William_Whewell

Hypothesis Should Foretell

“The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.”
Keywords: Hypothesis_quotes Acceptance_quotes Explanation_quotes Foretell_quotes Phenomena_quotes Observation_quotes Rule_quotes Prevail_quotes Case_quotes Determine_quotes Calculation_quotes Consequence_quotes Prediction_quotes Result_quotes Combination_quotes Appearance_quotes Occur_quotes Old_quotes Certainty_quotes Correctness_quotes Mode_quotes Verification_quotes Right_quotes Usefulness_quotes

Prediction of Facts

“We have here spoken of the prediction of facts of the same kind as those from which our rule was collected. But the evidence in favour of our induction is of a much higher and more forcible character when it enables us to explain and determine cases of a kind different from those which were contemplated in the formation of our hypothesis. The instances in which this has occurred, indeed, impress us with a conviction that the truth of our hypothesis is certain. No accident could give rise to such an extraordinary coincidence. No false supposition could, after being adjusted to one class of phenomena, so exactly represent a different class, when the agreement was unforeseen and contemplated. That rules springing from remote and unconnected quarters should thus leap to the same point, can only arise from that being where truth resides.”
Keywords: Speak_quotes Prediction_quotes Fact_quotes Kind_quotes Rule_quotes Collect_quotes Evidence_quotes Favor_quotes Induction_quotes High_quotes Force_quotes Character_quotes Enable_quotes Explanation_quotes Determine_quotes Differences_quotes Contemplate_quotes Formation_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Instance_quotes Occur_quotes Impress_quotes Conviction_quotes Truth_quotes Certainty_quotes Accident_quotes Extraordinary_quotes Coincidence_quotes False_quotes Supposition_quotes Adjustment_quotes Phenomena_quotes Exact_quotes Representation_quotes Class_quotes Agreement_quotes Unforeseen_quotes Spring_quotes Remote_quotes Unconnect_quotes Quarter_quotes Leap_quotes Point_quotes Arise_quotes Reside_quotes

Eugene_Wigner

No Definite Evidence

“[F. Werner, while a student in Princeton,] came to me and expressed his bewilderment with the fact that we make a rather narrow selection when choosing the data on which we test our theories. ‘How do we know that, if we made a theory which focuses its attention on phenomena we disregard and disregards some of the phenomena now commanding our attention, that we could not build another theory which has little in common with the present one but which, nevertheless, explains just as many phenomena as the present theory?' It has to be admitted that we have no definite evidence that there is no such theory.”
  • Source: Eugene Paul Wigner, In 'The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences,' Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics (Feb 1960), 13, No. 1 (February 1960). Collected in Eugene Paul Wigner, A.S. Wightman (ed.), Jagdish Mehra (ed.), The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner (1955), Vol. 6, 535.
Keywords: Come_quotes Express_quotes Bewilderment_quotes Fact_quotes Narrow_quotes Select_quotes Choose_quotes Data_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Knowledge_quotes Focus_quotes Attention_quotes Phenomena_quotes Disregard_quotes Command_quotes Build_quotes Present_quotes Explanation_quotes Admit_quotes Definite_quotes Evidence_quotes
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