Theory quotes

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Christopher_Wolfgang_Alexander

Time for Equilibrium

“Misfit provides an incentive to change; good fit provides none. In theory the process is eventually bound to reach the equilibrium of well-fitting forms. However, for the fit to occur in practice, one vital condition must be satisfied. It must have time to happen. The process must be able to achieve equilibrium before the next culture change upsets it again... The direct response is the feedback of the process. If the process is to maintain the good fit ... while the culture drifts, it needs a feedback sensitive enough to take action the moment that one of the potential failures actually occurs.”
Keywords: Design_quotes Incongruity_quotes Change_quotes Equilibrium_quotes Schedule_quotes Time_quotes Feedback_quotes Misfit_quotes Incentive_quotes Fit_quotes Theory_quotes Process_quotes Bound_quotes Form_quotes Practice_quotes Vital_quotes Condition_quotes Satisfy_quotes Time_quotes Happen_quotes Achieve_quotes Before_quotes Culture_quotes Upset_quotes Direct_quotes Response_quotes Maintain_quotes Drift_quotes Sensitive_quotes Action_quotes Potential_quotes Failure_quotes Occur_quotes

Herbert_George_Andrewartha

Model Making

“Model-making, the imaginative and logical steps which precede the experiment, may be judged the most valuable part of the scientific method because skill and insight in these matters are rare. Without them, we do not know what experiment to do. But it is the experiment which provides the raw material for scientific theory. Scientific theory cannot be built directly from the conclusions of conceptual models.”
  • Source: Herbert George Andrewartha, Introduction to the Study of Animal Population (1961), 181.
Keywords: Model_quotes Experiment_quotes Creativity_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Theory_quotes Make_quotes Imagination_quotes Logic_quotes Valuable_quotes Skill_quotes Insight_quotes Rare_quotes Knowledge_quotes Provide_quotes Raw_quotes Material_quotes Science_quotes Direct_quotes Conclusion_quotes Conceptual_quotes

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

Isaac_Asimov

Science Uncertainty

“Science is uncertain. Theories are subject to revision; observations are open to a variety of interpretations, and scientists quarrel amongst themselves. This is disillusioning for those untrained in the scientific method, who thus turn to the rigid certainty of the Bible instead. There is something comfortable about a view that allows for no deviation and that spares you the painful necessity of having to think.”
  • Source: Isaac Asimov, The ‘Threat’ of Creationism. In Ashley Montagu (ed.), Science and Creationism, published 1984, page 192.
Source: Certainty_quotes Science_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Bible_quotes Thinking_quotes Theory_quotes Revision_quotes Observation_quotes Open_quotes Interpretation_quotes Scientist_quotes Quarrel_quotes Disillusion_quotes Untrained_quotes Rigid_quotes Comfort_quotes Allow_quotes Deviation_quotes Spare_quotes Pain_quotes Necessary_quotes Think_quotes

Jim_Baggott

The Fact Principle

“The Fact Principle. Our knowledge and understanding of empirical reality are founded on verified scientific facts derived from careful observation and experiment. But the facts themselves are not theory-neutral. Observation and experiment are simply not possible without reference to a supporting theory of some kind.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 12). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
Keywords: Fact_quotes Principle_quotes Knowledge_quotes Understanding_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes Verification_quotes Science_quotes Observation_quotes Experiment_quotes Theory_quotes Abstraction_quotes

The Theory Principle

“The Theory Principle. Although physical theories are constructed to describe empirical facts about reality, they are nevertheless founded on abstract mathematical (we could even say metaphysical) concepts. The process of abstraction from facts to theories is highly complex, intuitive and not subject to simple, universal rules applicable to all science for all time. In the act of scientific creation, any approach is in principle valid provided it yields a theory that works.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 17). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
Keywords: Fact_quotes Principle_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes Complexity_quotes Science_quotes Intuition_quotes Validity_quotes Theory_quotes Abstraction_quotes Rule_quotes Creativity_quotes

The Testability Principle

“The Testability Principle. The principal requirement of a scientific theory is that it should in some way be testable through reference to existing or new facts about empirical reality. The test exposes the veracity or falsity of the theory, but there is a caveat. The working stuff of theories is itself abstract and metaphysical. Getting this stuff to apply to the facts or a test situation typically requires wrapping the abstract concepts in a blanket of auxiliary assumptions; some explicitly stated, many taken as read. This means that a test is rarely decisive. When a test shows that a theory is false, the theory is not necessarily abandoned. It may simply mean that one or more of the auxiliary assumptions are wrong.”
  • Source: Baggott, Jim. Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth (p. 20). Pegasus Books. New York, NY.
Keywords: Testability_quotes Testing_quotes Principle_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Fact_quotes Empirical_quotes Reality_quotes Verification_quotes Falsification_quotes Abstraction_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Assumption_quotes Certainty_quotes

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

John_Stewart_Bell

Clean Theory

“That is to say, I’m a professional theoretical physicist and I would like to make a clean theory. And when I look at quantum mechanics I see that it’s a dirty theory.”
  • Source: John Stewart Bell in an interview recorded in the book “The Ghost in the Atom” by P.C.W. Davies and J.R. Brown, published in 1986 by Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3.
Keywords: Physics_quotes Quantum_quotes Consistency_quotes Theory_quotes Professional_quotes Clean_quotes Mechanics_quotes Dirty_quotes

Francis_Bello

Facts Alone

“Facts alone, no matter how numerous or verifiable, do not automatically arrange themselves into an intelligible, or truthful, picture of the world. It is the task of the human mind to invent a theoretical framework to account for them.”
  • Source: Francis Bello, In Francis Bello, Lawrence Lessing and George A.W. Boehm, Great American Scientists (1960, 1961), 116.
Keywords: Fact_quotes Confirmation_quotes Truth_quotes Theory_quotes Abstraction_quotes Numerous_quotes Verify_quotes Automatic_quotes Arrange_quotes Intelligible_quotes Picture_quotes World_quotes Task_quotes Human_quotes Mind_quotes Invention_quotes Framework_quotes Account_quotes

Claude_Bernard

Observer and Experimenter

“The observer does not reason, he notes; the experimenter, on the other hand, reasons and grounds himself on acquired facts, to imagine and induce rationally other facts. But though in theory and abstractly we may differentiate observers from experimenters, it seems impossible to separate them in practice.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter I, page 25. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Observer_quotes Reason_quotes Note_quotes Experimenter_quotes Ground_quotes Acquire_quotes Fact_quotes Imagine_quotes Induce_quotes Rational_quotes Theory_quotes Abstract_quotes Differentiate_quotes Impossible_quotes Separate_quotes Practice_quotes

Hypothesis Theory Reason

“A scientific hypothesis is merely a scientific idea, preconceived or pre-visioned. A theory is merely a scientific idea controlled by experiment. Reasoning merely gives a form to our ideas, so that everything, first and last, leads back to an idea.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter I, page 26. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Scientific_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Idea_quotes Preconceive_quotes Vision_quotes Theory_quotes Control_quotes Experiment_quotes Reason_quotes Form_quotes Everything_quotes First_quotes Last_quotes Lead_quotes

Trust

“The great experimental principle, then, is doubt... We must trust our observations or our theories only after experimental verification. If we trust too much, the mind becomes bound and cramped by the results of its own reasoning; it no longer has freedom of action, and so lacks the power to break away from that blind faith in theories which is only scientific superstition.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II, page 37. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Great_quotes Experimental_quotes Principle_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Trust_quotes Observation_quotes Theory_quotes After_quotes Verification_quotes Mind_quotes Bound_quotes Cramp_quotes Result_quotes Reason_quotes Freedom_quotes Action_quotes Lack_quotes Power_quotes Break_quotes Away_quotes Blind_quotes Faith_quotes Scientific_quotes Superstition_quotes

Excessive Faith

“Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries, they also make very poor observations.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II, page 38. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Men_quotes Excess_quotes Faith_quotes Theory_quotes Ill_quotes Prepare_quotes Make_quotes Discovery_quotes Poor_quotes Observation_quotes

Alter Theory Not Nature

“The theories which embody our scientific ideas as a whole are, of course, indispensable as representations of science. They should also serve as a basis for new ideas. But as these theories and ideas are by no means immutable truth, one must always be ready to abandon them, to alter them or to exchange them as soon as they cease to represent the truth. In a word, we must alter theory to adapt it to nature, but not nature to adapt it to theory.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II, page 39. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Theory_quotes Embody_quotes Scientific_quotes Idea_quotes Whole_quotes Indispensable_quotes Representation_quotes Science_quotes Serve_quotes Basis_quotes New_quotes Immutable_quotes Truth_quotes Ready_quotes Abandon_quotes Alter_quotes Exchange_quotes Cease_quotes Adapt_quotes Nature_quotes

Theory Overthrow

“When we have put forward an idea or a theory in science, our object must not be to preserve it by seeking everything that may support it and setting aside everything that may weaken it. On the contrary, we ought to examine with the greatest care the facts which apparently would overthrow it.”
  • Source: From the book "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine" written by Claude Bernard published in French in 1865 as "Introduction à l'étude de la médecine expérimentale". Translated to English by Henry Copley Greene in 1927 and republished by Henry Shuman, Inc. in 1949. Chapter II, page 40. Available online at https://archive.org/details/b21270557 retrieved 2024.
Keywords: Put_quotes Forward_quotes Idea_quotes Theory_quotes Science_quotes Object_quotes Preserve_quotes Seek_quotes Everything_quotes Support_quotes Set_quotes Aside_quotes Weak_quotes Contrary_quotes Examine_quotes Care_quotes Fact_quotes Apparent_quotes Overthrow_quotes Falsification_quotes

Arthur_Bloch

Finagle's Second Law

“No matter what the anticipated result, there will always be someone eager to (a) misinterpret it, (b) fake it, (c) believe it happened to his own pet theory.”
  • Source: Attributed to a fictional character named Finagle, reported in the book "Murphy's Law and Other Reasons Why Things Go Wrong" written by Arthur Bloch, first edition published in 1977 by Price/Stern/Sloan, Los Angeles, California. ISBN-10: 0843104287. ISBN-13: 978-0843104288. Chapter Murphology, page 15.
Keywords: Murphy(topic)_quotes Law_quotes Matter_quotes Anticipate_quotes Result_quotes Always_quotes Someone_quotes Eager_quotes Misinterpret_quotes Fake_quotes Believe_quotes Happen_quotes Pet_quotes Theory_quotes

David_Bohm

Theory Purpose

“we must avoid postulating a new element for each new phenomenon. But an equally serious mistake is to admit into the theory only those elements which can now be observed. For the purpose of a theory is not only to correlate the results of observations that we already know how to make, but also to suggest the need for new kinds of observations and to predict their results. In fact, the better a theory is able to suggest the need for new kinds of observations and to predict their results correctly, the more confidence we have that this theory is likely to be good representation of the actual properties of matter and not simply an empirical system especially chosen in such a way as to correlate a group of already known facts.”
  • Source: David Bohm in the paper “A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of ‘Hidden’ Variables. II”. Published January 1952 in Physical Review volume 35 issue 2.
Keywords: Avoid_quotes Postulate_quotes Element_quotes New_quotes Phenomenon_quotes Mistake_quotes Admit_quotes Theory_quotes Observation_quotes Purpose_quotes Correlation_quotes Result_quotes Already_quotes Make_quotes Suggest_quotes Need_quotes Kind_quotes Prediction_quotes Better_quotes Correct_quotes Confidence_quotes Good_quotes Represent_quotes Actual_quotes Property_quotes Matter_quotes Empirical_quotes System_quotes Choose_quotes Way_quotes Group_quotes Known_quotes Fact_quotes

Niels_Bohr

Theory and Experiment

“When theory and experiment agree, that is the time to be especially suspicious.”
Keywords: Theory_quotes Experiment_quotes Confirmation_quotes Falsification_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Agree_quotes Time_quotes Especial_quotes Suspicious_quotes

Robert_N_Britcher

Programming Not Science

“Programming is not a science, and there is no theory of programming. If there were, everyone would approach programming the same way.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 17.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Approach_quotes Way_quotes

Theory Informs Programming

“...theory has informed Programming largely through programming languages.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 18.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Science_quotes Theory_quotes Inform_quotes Language_quotes

Theory and Programming

“...when it comes to programming, theory and practice may never be on speaking terms.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 18.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Theory_quotes Practice_quotes Speak_quotes Term_quotes

Complexity of Practice

“The complexity of practice has always dwarfed the simplicity of theory.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 111.
Keywords: Complexity_quotes Practice_quotes Process_quotes Simplicity_quotes Theory_quotes Dwarf_quotes

Knowing Versus Doing

“We should not give up because there is no unified field theory of software engineering. The elements may not be easy to implement, but they are relatively simple, especially when compared with the study of proteins. ... The problem is not that we do not know enough. The problem is that we do not practice what we know.”
  • Source: Britcher, Robert N. (1999). The Limits of Software: People, Projects, and Perspectives. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. ISBN 0-201-43323-0. Page 209.
Keywords: Persistence_quotes Unification_quotes Theory_quotes Software_Engineering_quotes Element_quotes Hard_quotes Simplicity_quotes Protein_quotes Problem_quotes Knowledge_quotes Action_quotes Practice_quotes Doing_quotes Software_quotes Engineering_quotes Easy_quotes Implement_quotes Relative_quotes Compare_quotes Study_quotes Practice_quotes

Theories and Truth

“There are theories for just about everything; truth is no exception.”
Keywords: Theory_quotes Truth_quotes

Samuel_Butler

Scientific Mind

"The best class of scientific mind is the same as the best class of business mind. The great desideratum in either case is to know how much evidence is enough to warrant action. It is as unbusiness-like to want too much evidence before buying or selling as to be content with too little. The same kind of qualities are wanted in either case. The difference is that if the business man makes a mistake, he commonly has to suffer for it, whereas it is rarely that scientific blundering, so long as it is confined to theory, entails loss on the blunderer. On the contrary it very often brings him fame, money and a pension. Hence the business man, if he is a good one, will take greater care not to overdo or underdo things than the scientific man can reasonably be expected to take."
  • Source: Samuel Butler, Henry Festing Jones (ed.), The Note-Books of Samuel Butler (1917), 217.
Keywords: Mind_quotes Science_quotes Business_quotes Evidence_quotes Action_quotes Desire_quotes Mistake_quotes Suffering_quotes Theory_quotes Fame_quotes Money_quotes Best_quotes Desideratum_quotes Warrant_quotes Buy_quotes Sell_quotes Content_quotes Difference_quotes Blunder_quotes Pension_quotes Overdo_quotes Underdo_quotes

Fritjof_Capra

Quantum Theory Acceptance

"The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena. The verbal interpretation, on the other hand – i.e., the metaphysics of quantum theory – is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than forty years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model."
  • Source: Fritjof Capra, In The Tao of Physics (1975), 132.
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Quantum_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Repeatability_quotes Consistency_quotes Accuracy_quotes Atomic_quotes Interpretation_quotes Metaphysics_quotes Physics_quotes Framework_quotes Pass_quotes Success_quotes Universal_quotes Accept_quotes Description_quotes Phenomena_quotes Verbal_quotes Solid_quotes Ground_quotes Clear_quotes Model_quotes

Thomas_Chrowder_Chamberlin

Scientific Study

"In scientific study, or, as I prefer to phrase it, in creative scholarship, the truth is the single end sought; all yields to that. The truth is supreme, not only in the vague mystical sense in which that expression has come to be a platitude, but in a special, definite, concrete sense. Facts and the immediate and necessary inductions from facts displace all pre-conceptions, all deductions from general principles, all favourite theories. Previous mental constructions are bowled over as childish play-structures by facts as they come rolling into the mind. The dearest doctrines, the most fascinating hypotheses, the most cherished creations of the reason and of the imagination perish from a mind thoroughly inspired with the scientific spirit in the presence of incompatible facts. Previous intellectual affections are crushed without hesitation and without remorse. Facts are placed before reasonings and before ideals, even though the reasonings and the ideals be more beautiful, be seemingly more lofty, be seemingly better, be seemingly truer. The seemingly absurd and the seemingly impossible are sometimes true. The scientific disposition is to accept facts upon evidence, however absurd they may appear to our pre-conceptions."
  • Source: Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, The Ethical Functions of Scientific Study: An Address Delivered at the Annual Commencement of the University of Michigan, 28 June 1888, 7-8
Keywords: Science_quotes Scholarship_quotes Truth_quotes Induction_quotes Deduction_quotes Bias_quotes Theory_quotes Mind_quotes Dogma_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Reason_quotes Imagination_quotes Compatibility_quotes Intellectualism_quotes Ideals_quotes Absurdity_quotes Impossibility_quotes Evidence_quotes Preconception_quotes Study_quotes Supreme_quotes Vague_quotes Mystical_quotes Expression_quotes Platitude_quotes Special_quotes Concrete_quotes Fact_quotes Principle_quotes Mental_quotes Construction_quotes Play_quotes Doctrine_quotes Spirit_quotes Incompatible_quotes Hesitate_quotes Remorse_quotes Ideals_quotes Beauty_quotes Lofty_quotes Absurd_quotes True_quotes Appear_quotes

Marvin_Chester

Mathematical Quantum Predictions

"The mathematical predictions of quantum mechanics yield results that are in agreement with experimental findings. That is the reason we use quantum theory. That quantum theory fits experiment is what validates the theory, but why experiment should give such peculiar results is a mystery. This is the shock to which Bohr referred."'
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Prediction_quotes Quantum_quotes Experiment_quotes Mystery_quotes Mechanics_quotes Yield_quotes Result_quotes Agree_quotes Finding_quotes Theory_quotes Validate_quotes Peculiar_quotes Shock_quotes Bohr(topic)_quotes


Nigel_Cross

Conventional Problem Solving

"Conventional wisdom about problem-solving seems often to be contradicted by the behavior of expert designers. But designing has many differences from conventional problem-solving. ... we must be very wary about importing models of design behavior from other fields. Empirical studies of design activity have frequently found 'intuitive' features of design ability to be the most effective and relevant to the intrinsic nature of design. Some aspects of design theory, however, have tried to develop counter-intuitive models and prescriptions for design behavior."
Keywords: Convention_quotes Wisdom_quotes Problem_quotes Solution_quotes Contradiction_quotes Expert_quotes Design_quotes Model_quotes Behavior_quotes Empirical_quotes Research_quotes Activity_quotes Intuition_quotes Ability_quotes Relevance_quotes Intrinsic_quotes Nature_quotes Theory_quotes Prescription_quotes Feature_quotes Field_quotes Effective_quotes

Charles_Darwin

Good Observer Theory

"I have an old belief that a good observer really means a good theorist."
Keywords: Belief_quotes Observation_quotes Theory_quotes Good_quotes

Observation versus Theory

"About thirty years ago there was much talk that geologists ought only to observe and not theorize; and I well remember someone saying that at this rate a man might as well go into a gravel-pit and count the pebbles and describe the colours. How odd it is that anyone should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service."
Keywords: Geologist_quotes Observation_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Bias_quotes Talk_quotes Say_quotes Rate_quotes Gravel_quotes Pit_quotes Pebble_quotes Describe_quotes Color_quotes Odd_quotes View_quotes Service_quotes

Paul_Davies

Models and Theories and Reality

"Until now, physical theories have been regarded as merely models with approximately describe the reality of nature. As the models improve, so the fit between theory and reality gets closer. Some physicists are now claiming that supergravity is the reality, that the model and the real world are in mathematically perfect accord."
  • Source: P.C.W. Davies, Superforce (1984, 1985), 149.
Keywords: Physical_quotes Theory_quotes Model_quotes Approximation_quotes Reality_quotes Nature_quotes Physicist_quotes Gravity_quotes Mathematics_quotes Fit_quotes Supergravity_quotes Accord_quotes

W_Edwards_Deming

Theory is a Window

"Theory is a window into the world. Theory leads to prediction. Without prediction, experience and examples teach nothing."
  • Source: W. Edwards Deming, In the book The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education;; (1993), 103. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Keywords: Theory_quotes Window_quotes World_quotes Prediction_quotes Experience_quotes Example_quotes Teaching_quotes

David_Deutsch

Common Sense

“Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...”
Keywords: Common_Sense_quotes Theory_quotes Truth_quotes Best_quotes Sense_quotes

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

Theory of Computation

“The theory of computation has traditionally been studied almost entirely in the abstract, as a topic in pure mathematics. This is to miss the point of it. Computers are physical objects, and computations are physical processes. What computers can or cannot compute is determined by the laws of physics alone, and not by pure mathematics.”
Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Tradition_quotes Abstraction_quotes Mathematics_quotes Computer_quotes Physical_quotes Object_quotes Physics_quotes Study_quotes Determine_quotes

Amending Data

“Amending the ‘data’, or rejecting some as erroneous, is a frequent concomitant of scientific discovery, and the crucial ‘data’ cannot even be obtained until theory tells us what to look for and how and why.”
  • Source: David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World (2011).
Keywords: Amending_quotes Data_quotes Rejection_quotes Error_quotes Science_quotes Discovery_quotes Theory_quotes Creativity_quotes Concomitant_quotes Obtain_quotes Look_quotes

Data Interpretation

“We never know any data before interpreting it through theories. All observations are, as Popper put it, theory-laden, and hence fallible, as all our theories are.”
  • Source: David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World (2011).
Keywords: Data_quotes Interpretation_quotes Theory_quotes Observation_quotes Fallibility_quotes Bias_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

David_Epstein

Creativity

“There is, to be sure, no comprehensive theory of creativity.”
  • Source: David Epstein in the book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”. Published 2019 by Riverhead Books. Chapter 9, page 198. ISBN 978-0735214484.
Keywords: Sure_quotes Comprehensive_quotes Theory_quotes Creativity_quotes

Michael_Faraday

Assertion Duties

“A man who makes assertions, or draws conclusions, regarding any given case, ought to be competent to investigate it. He has no right to throw the onus on others, declaring it their duly to prove him right or wrong. His duty is to demonstrate the truth of that which he asserts, or to cease from asserting. The men he calls upon to consider and judge have enough to do with themselves, in the examination, correction, or verification of their own views. The world little knows how many of the thoughts and theories which have passed through the mind of a scientific investigator have been crushed in silence and secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse examination; that in the most successful instances not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been realized.”
  • Source: Lecturer=Michael Faraday; Lecture/Title=“Observations on Mental Education: A Lecture Delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain Before H.R.H. Prince Albert”; Date=1854-05-06; Book/Title=“Lectures on Education”; Publication/Date=1855; Book/Title=“Experimental Researches in Chemistry and Physics”; Publication/Date=1859); Page=486.
Keywords: Assertion_quotes Conclusion_quotes Investigation_quotes Rights_quotes Duty_quotes Proof_quotes Truth_quotes Examination_quotes Correction_quotes Verification_quotes Opinion_quotes World_quotes Thinking_quotes Theory_quotes Mind_quotes Science_quotes Self-Examination_quotes Criticism_quotes Success_quotes Suggestion_quotes Hope_quotes Wish_quotes Man_quotes Case_quotes Competent_quotes Throw_quotes Onus_quotes Right_quotes Wrong_quotes Demonstrate_quotes Men_quotes Consider_quotes Judge_quotes View_quotes Crush_quotes Silent_quotes Secret_quotes Preliminary_quotes Realize_quotes

Paul_Feyerabend

Theory Never Agrees with All Facts

“No single theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain.”
  • Source: Paul Feyerabend, Against Method (1st ed.) (1975) p. 33
    • Paul Feyerabend, Against Method (3rd ed.) (1993) p. 39
Keywords: Fact_quotes Theory_quotes Domain_quotes Uncertainty_quotes

Richard_Feynman

Classical Theory

“... I'm not happy with all the analyses that go with just the classical theory, because nature isn't classical, dammit. And if you want to make a simulation of nature, you'd better make it quantum mechanical, and, by golly, it's a wonderful problem because it doesn't look so easy.”
  • Source: Article/Title: “Simulating Physics with Computers”; Journal/Name: International Journal of Theoretical Physics; Volume: 21; Publication/Date: 1982; Page: 486.
Keywords: Happy_quotes Analysis_quotes Classical_quotes Reality_quotes Theory_quotes Nature_quotes Simulation_quotes Quantum_quotes Wonder_quotes Easy_quotes Mechanics_quotes Problem_quotes

Murray_Gell-Mann

Curiosity

“My colleagues in elementary particle theory in many lands [and I] are driven by the usual insatiable curiosity of the scientist, and our work is a delightful game. I am frequently astonished that it so often results in correct predictions of experimental results. How can it be that writing down a few simple and elegant formulae, like short poems governed by strict rules such as those of the sonnet or the waka, can predict universal regularities of Nature?”
  • Source: Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel Banquet Speech (10 Dec 1969), in Wilhelm Odelberg (ed.),Les Prix Nobel en 1969 (1970).
Keywords: Particle_quotes Theory_quotes Curiosity_quotes Insatiable_quotes Science_quotes Work_quotes Game_quotes Correctness_quotes Prediction_quotes Experiment_quotes Result_quotes Simplicity_quotes Elegance_quotes Formula_quotes Mathematics_quotes Poetry_quotes Rule_quotes Repeatability_quotes Nature_quotes Universal_quotes

Rudy_Giuliani

Evidence

“We’ve got lots of theories. We just don’t have the evidence.”
Keywords: Theory_quotes Evidence_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

William_Rowan_Hamilton

Theory and Hypothesis

“This word [theoryJ is employed by English writers in a very loose and improper sense. It is with them usually convertible into hypothesis, and hypothesis is commonly used as another term for conjecture. The terms theory and theoretical are properly used in opposition to the terms practice and practical. In this sense they were exclusively employed by the ancients; and in this sense they are almost exclusively employed by the continental philosophers.”
  • Source: Written by William Rowan Hamilton. Recorded in the book 'Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, published in 1988 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, New York. Chapter 84, quote number 84.9, page 325. ISBN 1-555-84111-2.
Keywords: Word_quotes Theory_quotes Employ_quotes English_quotes Language_quotes Writer_quotes Loose_quotes Improper_quotes Sense_quotes Convertible_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Common_quotes Term_quotes Practice_quotes Practical_quotes Exclusive_quotes Ancient_quotes Continental_quotes Philosopher_quotes

Stephen_Hawking

Correspondence to Reality

“I don't demand that a theory corresponds to reality because I don't know what it is. Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper. All I'm concerned with is that the theory should predict the results of experiment.”
  • Source: During a debate with Roger Penrose in 1994 at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, transcribed in The Nature of Space and Time (1996) by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Umiversity Press, p. 121.
Keywords: Theory_quotes Correspondence_quotes Reality_quotes Knowledge_quotes Testing_quotes Litmus_quotes Prediction_quotes Experiment_quotes Result_quotes

Robert_Heinlein

Scientific Method

“There are but two ways of forming an opinion in science. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. One can judge from experiment, or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.”.
  • Source: Written by Robert A. Heinlein in the short story “Life-Line” originally published in the 1939-08 edition of “Astounding Science Fiction” magazine, page 83. Character: Dr. Pinero. Retrieved 2024-05-05 from https://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/AST.htm.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Science_quotes Method_quotes Way_quotes Form_quotes Opinion_quotes Scholastic_quotes Judge_quotes Experiment_quotes Blind_quotes Accept_quotes Authority_quotes Mind_quotes Proof_quotes Important_quotes Theory_quotes Convenience_quotes Description_quotes Junk_quotes Fit_quotes Academic_quotes Everything_quotes Fact_quotes Laid_quotes Down_quotes

Mary_Hesse

Analogy or Model

“…one of the main functions of an analogy or model is to suggest extensions of the theory by considering extensions of the analogy, since more is known about the analogy than is known about the subject matter of the theory itself… A collection of observable concepts in a purely formal hypothesis suggesting no analogy with anything would consequently not suggest either any directions for its own development.”
  • Source: Mary B. Hesse, 'Operational Definition and Analogy in Physical Theories', British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (Feb 1952), 2, No. 8, 291.
Keywords: Function_quotes Analogy_quotes Model_quotes Theory_quotes Extension_quotes Subject_quotes Observation_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Direction_quotes

Donald_Hoffman

Demystify Consciousness

“Cats can't do calculus and monkeys can't do quantum theory, so why assume that Homo sapiens can demystify consciousness?”
  • Source: Donald Hoffman in his book “The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes”. Published by W. W. Norton, New York, NY, in 2019. ISBN 978-0393254693. Chapter 1, page 33.
Keywords: Cat_quotes Calculus_quotes Mathematics_quotes Monkey_quotes Quantum_quotes Theory_quotes Assume_quotes Homo-Sapiens_quotes Human_quotes Demystify_quotes Consciousness_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

Thomas_Henry_Huxley

Tragedy of Science

“The great tragedy of science - the slaying of a beautiful theory by an ugly fact.”
  • Source: Thomas Henry Huxley speaking at the Presidential Address at the British Association, "Biogenesis and abiogenesis" (1870). Retrieved from https://mathcs.clarku.edu/huxley/CE8/B-Ab.html. Later published in Collected Essays, Vol. 8, p. 229.
Keywords: Tragedy_quotes Science_quotes Slaying_quotes Beauty_quotes Theory_quotes Ugly_quotes Fact_quotes

Arthur_Koestler

Progress of Science

“The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeletons of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life.”
  • Source: Arthur Koestler, In The Ghost in the Machine (1967).
Keywords: Progress_quotes Science_quotes Ancient_quotes Ghost_quotes Machine_quotes Strewn_quotes Desert_quotes Trail_quotes Bleach_quotes Skeleton_quotes Discard_quotes Theory_quotes Seem_quotes Possess_quotes Eternal_quotes Life_quotes

Kenneth_W_Kolence

Large Systems

“The basic problem is that certain classes of systems are placing demands on us which are beyond our capabilities and our theories and methods of design and production at this time ... It is large systems that are encountering great difficulties. We should not expect the production of such systems to be easy.”
Keywords: Problem_quotes System_quotes Class_quotes Demand_quotes Beyond_quotes Capability_quotes Theory_quotes Methodology_quotes Production_quotes Large_quotes Difficulty_quotes Easy_quotes Design_quotes Encounter_quotes

Lawrence_M_Krauss

Biggest Misconception

“The biggest misconception about science is that it tells us what's true. It doesn't do that at all. It tells us what's false. And by knowing what's false, it's like Sherlock Holmes, you get rid of what's false and you hope what's left is closer to the truth. But you never know that any theory is absolutely true, and the only way to find out to make progress is to be able to rule things out. So falsifiability is very important.”
  • Source: Panel comments by Lawrence Krauss at Perimeter Institute's festival "Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future" in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, October 2009. Available online as Youtube video "Lawrence Krauss, Sean Carroll, Neil Turok & Others - Quantum to Cosmos" at https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ftH1yig-HDU (accessed 2017) at about 27 minutes into the video.
Keywords: Big_quotes Misconception_quotes Science_quotes Truth_quotes False_quotes Knowledge_quotes Deduction_quotes Elimination_quotes Theory_quotes Absolute_quotes Find_quotes Progress_quotes Rule_quotes Falsification_quotes Importance_quotes Holmes(topic)_quotes Rid_quotes Hope_quotes Closer_quotes Out_quotes

Robert_Lawrence_Kuhn

Scientific Method

“I like to distinguish between the scientific method, which is applied to all materialistic theories. The scientific method is one of observation or experimentation, repeatability, falsification, the repeatability by different techniques of different labs, or prediction and results. It's a scientific method. I say that if it's a non-physical theory, or the theory has any aspect of non-physicalism to it, it doesn't have to be all, any aspect invalidates, to some degree invalidates, the scientific method as I just described from being applicable. And I think there's a tendency in some theories that have some non-physical aspect to try to show their legitimacy by applying the scientific method... I think that's a false desire, because once you're non-physical you are invalidating, to one degree or another, the scientific method. Maybe not totally, but in some degree.”
  • Source: Kuhn, Robert Lawrence. Within the YouTube video “All 325+ Competing Consciousness Theories In One Video” on the Essentia Foundation channel, https://youtu.be/h5G6Oc_V3Lw?si=jzabxeu55GvABDFs, published 2025-08-22, video offset at 1:32:25.
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Materialism_quotes Theory_quotes Observation_quotes Experiment_quotes Repeatability_quotes Falsification_quotes Different_quotes Technique_quotes Prediction_quotes Result_quotes Physical_quotes Non-physical_quotes Aspect_quotes Show_quotes Legitimate_quotes Apply_quotes False_quotes Desire_quotes Invalidate_quotes Degree_quotes Total_quotes

Scientific Method Limits

“Every theory that is dualist, panpsychist or idealist agrees that we can study the biological facets of consciousness by studying the brain – but they all claim this will never lead to a complete understanding. In other words, there are limits to how far the scientific method can take us.”
Keywords: Scientific_Method_quotes Theory_quotes Dualism_quotes Panpsychism_quotes Idealism_quotes Agree_quotes Study_quotes Biology_quotes Facet_quotes Consciousness_quotes Brain_quotes Claim_quotes Never_quotes Lead_quotes Complete_quotes Understand_quotes Limit_quotes

Pierre-Simon_Laplace

System of Nature

“The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence that at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective position, motions, and general affects of all these entities at any time in the past or future. Physical astronomy, the branch of knowledge that does the greatest honor to the human mind, gives us an idea, albeit imperfect, of what such an intelligence would be. The simplicity of the law by which the celestial bodies move, and the relations of their masses and distances, permit analysis to follow their motions up to a certain point; and in order to determine the state of the system of these great bodies in past or future centuries, it suffices for the mathematician that their position and their velocity be given by observation for any moment in time. Man owes that advantage to the power of the instrument he employs, and to the small number of relations that it embraces in its calculations. But ignorance of the different causes involved in the production of events, as well as their complexity, taken together with the imperfection of analysis, prevents our reaching the same certainty about the vast majority of phenomena. Thus there are things that are uncertain for us, things more or less probable, and we seek to compensate for the impossibility of knowing them by determining their different degrees of likelihood. So it was that we owe to the weakness of the human mind one of the most delicate and ingenious of mathematical theories, the science of chance or probability.”
  • Source: Pierre-Simon Laplace, 'Recherches, 1º, sur l'Intégration des Équations Différentielles aux Différences Finies, et sur leur Usage dans la Théorie des Hasards' (1773, published 1776). In Oeuvres complètes de Laplace, 14 Vols. (1843-1912), Vol. 8, 144-5, trans. Charles Coulston Gillispie, Pierre-Simon Laplace 1749-1827: A Life in Exact Science (1997), 26.
Keywords: State_quotes Present_quotes System_quotes Nature_quotes Consequence_quotes Moment_quotes Precede_quotes Conceive_quotes Intelligence_quotes Instant_quotes Comprehension_quotes Relationship_quotes Universe_quotes Position_quotes Motion_quotes Causality_quotes Time_quotes Past_quotes Future_quotes Astronomy_quotes Knowledge_quotes Humanity_quotes Mind_quotes Idea_quotes Imperfect_quotes Law_quotes Celestial_quotes Body_quotes Mass_quotes Distance_quotes Analysis_quotes Determine_quotes Century_quotes Mathematics_quotes Velocity_quotes Observation_quotes Advantage_quotes Power_quotes Instrument_quotes Calculation_quotes Ignorance_quotes Cause_quotes Production_quotes Event_quotes Complexity_quotes Certainty_quotes Majority_quotes Phenomena_quotes Probability_quotes Impossibility_quotes Likelihood_quotes Weakness_quotes Theory_quotes Chance_quotes

Thomas_Robert_Malthus

Theory and Experiments

“It is an acknowledged truth in philosophy, that a just theory will always be confirmed by experiment.”
Keywords: Theory_quotes Acknowledge_quotes Truth_quotes Philosophy_quotes Just_quotes Justified_quotes Confirm_quotes Experiment_quotes

N_David_Mermin

Shut Up and Calculate

“I'm one of the uncomfortable ones. If I were forced to sum up in one sentence what the Copenhagen interpretation says to me, it would be 'Shut up and calculate!' But I won't shut up. I would rather celebrate the strangeness of quantum theory than deny it, because I believe it still has interesting things to teach us about how certain powerful but flawed verbal and mental tools we once took for granted continue to infect our thinking in subtly hidden ways.”
  • Source: What's Wrong with this Pillow? by N. David Mermin, Cornell University, Physics Today, volume 42, issure 4, April 1989, page 9, doi:10.1063/1.2810963
Keywords: Shut_Up_quotes Copenhagen_quotes Interpretation_quotes Calculation_quotes Curiosity_quotes Uncomfortable_quotes Force_quotes Free_Speech_quotes Celebrate_quotes Strange_quotes Quantum_quotes Theory_quotes Deny_quotes Belief_quotes Interesting_quotes Teaching_quotes Learning_quotes Power_quotes Flaw_quotes Verbal_quotes Mental_quotes Tool_quotes Grant_quotes Infect_quotes Thinking_quotes Hiding_quotes

John_von_Neumann

Gradual Development of Theory

“What is important is the gradual development of a theory, based on a careful analysis of the ... facts. ... Its first applications are necessarily to elementary problems where the result has never been in doubt and no theory is actually required. At this early stage the application serves to corroborate the theory. The next stage develops when the theory is applied to somewhat more complicated situations in which it may already lead to a certain extent beyond the obvious and familiar. Here theory and application corroborate each other mutually. Beyond lies the field of real success: genuine prediction by theory. It is well known that all mathematized sciences have gone through these successive stages of evolution.”
  • Source: John von Neumann, 'Formulation of the Economic Problem' in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1964), 8. Reprinted in John Von Neumann, F. Bródy (ed.) and Tibor Vámos (ed.), The Neumann Compendium (2000), 416.
Keywords: Importance_quotes Gradual_quotes Development_quotes Theory_quotes Careful_quotes Analysis_quotes Fact_quotes Application_quotes Elementary_quotes Problem_quotes Result_quotes Doubt_quotes Requirements_quotes Early_quotes Stage_quotes Service_quotes Corroborate_quotes Complexity_quotes Situation_quotes Lead_quotes Obvious_quotes Familiar_quotes Mutual_quotes Success_quotes Genuine_quotes Prediction_quotes Mathematics_quotes Science_quotes Evolution_quotes Beyond_quotes

David_E_Nye

Rugged Engineer

“Well before World War I, the engineer emerged as a rugged individualist, the man of action (the profession was overwhelmingly male) who overcame obstacles, put theories into practice, and ensured material progress.”
  • Source: A book. Written by David E. Nye. Entitled 'Narratives and Spaces'. Published in 1997 by Univerity of Exeter Press, Exeter, UK. Hardback ISBN 0-85989-555-6. Paperback ISBN 0-85989-556-4. Chapter 5, page 81.
Keywords: World_quotes War_quotes Engineer_quotes Emerge_quotes Rugged_quotes Individualist_quotes Man_quotes Profession_quotes Overwhelm_quotes Male_quotes Overcame_quotes Obstacle_quotes Theory_quotes Practice_quotes Ensure_quotes Material_quotes Progress_quotes

Joel_Pel

Murphy's Law Equation

“A new mathematical foundation to one of today’s most recognized physical laws, Murphy’s Law. Experimental data matches very nicely with the theory presented in this equation.”
MurphysEquation.gif
  • Notes:
    • PM is the Murphy’s probability that something will go wrong.
    • KM is Murphy’s constant (equal to one).
    • FM is Murphy’s factor, a very small number that can only be calculated on a 386-computer running Windows 3.1. Here we will approximate it by FM ≈ 0.01.
    • I is the importance of the result or outcome of the event on a scale of 1 to 10.
    • C is the complexity of the system on a scale of 1 to 10.
    • U is the urgency on a scale of 1 to 10.
    • F is the frequency on a scale of 1 to 10.
    • e is Euler's number, a mathematical constant approximately equal to 2.71828.
  • Source: Written by Joel Pel in the article “The Murphy's Law Equation” published 2007-05-21 in The Science Creative Quarterly.
Keywords: Mathematics_quotes Foundation_quotes Law_quotes Physical_quotes Murphy(topic)_quotes Experiment_quotes Data_quotes Theory_quotes Equation_quotes

Alan_Perlis

Neuroscience, Psychology, and Software

“The only constructive theory connecting neuroscience and psychology will arise from the study of software.”
Keywords: Neuroscience_quotes Psychology_quotes Software_quotes Construction_quotes Connection_quotes Theory_quotes Arise_quotes Study_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

Computational Theory of Mind

“The computational theory of mind is not the same thing as the despised ‘computer metaphor.’ As many critics have pointed out, computers are serial, doing one thing at a time; brains are parallel, doing millions of things at once. Computers are fast; brains are slow. Computer parts are reliable; brain parts are noisy. Computers have a limited number of connections; brains have trillions. Computers are assembled according to a blueprint; brains must assemble themselves.”
  • 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: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Mind_quotes Despise_quotes Computer_quotes Metaphor_quotes Criticism_quotes Point_quotes Serial_quotes Time_quotes Brain_quotes Parallel_quotes Fast_quotes Slow_quotes Reliability_quotes Part_quotes Noise_quotes Limitation_quotes Number_quotes Connection_quotes Assembly_quotes According_quotes Blueprint_quotes Million_quotes Trillion_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

Computational Mind Probabilistic

“The computational theory thus embraces an alternative kind of computer with many elements that are active to a degree corresponding to the probability that some statement is true or false, and in which the activity levels change smoothly to register new and roughly accurate probabilities. (As we shall see, that may be the way the brain works.) The key idea is that the answer to the question 'What makes a system smart?' is not the kind of stuff it is made of or the kind of energy flowing through it, but what the parts of the machine stand for and how the patterns of changes inside it are designed to mirror truth-preserving relationships (including probabilistic and fuzzy truths).”
  • 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 Section: The search for Intelligent Life in the Universe.
Keywords: Computation_quotes Theory_quotes Embrace_quotes Alternative_quotes Kind_quotes Computer_quotes Element_quotes Activity_quotes Degree_quotes Correspondence_quotes Probability_quotes Statement_quotes True_quotes False_quotes Level_quotes Change_quotes Smooth_quotes Register_quotes Rough_quotes Accuracy_quotes Sight_quotes Way_quotes Brain_quotes Work_quotes Key_quotes Idea_quotes Answer_quotes Question_quotes System_quotes Smart_quotes Stuff_quotes Energy_quotes Flow_quotes Part_quotes Machine_quotes Stand_quotes Pattern_quotes Inside_quotes Design_quotes Mirror_quotes Fuzzy_quotes Truth_quotes Preservation_quotes Mind_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

Karl_Popper

Confirmation Easy

“It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory — if we look for confirmations. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions... A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice. Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or refute it.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963), 36.
Keywords: Easy_quotes Obtain_quotes Confirmation_quotes Verification_quotes Theory_quotes Count_quotes Result_quotes Risk_quotes Prediction_quotes Refutation_quotes Conceivable_quotes Event_quotes Science_quotes Falsification_quotes Irrefutability_quotes Virtue_quotes People_quotes Thinking_quotes Vice_quotes Genuine_quotes Testing_quotes Attempt_quotes

Theory Personality

“Understanding a theory has, indeed, much in common with understanding a human personality. We may know or understand a man's system of dispositions pretty well; that is to say, we may be able to predict how he would act in a number of different situations. But since there are infinitely many possible situations, of infinite variety, a full understanding of a man's dispositions does not seem to be possible.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, Objective Knowledge: an Evolutionary Approach (1972), 299.
Keywords: Understanding_quotes Theory_quotes Common_quotes Humanity_quotes Personality_quotes Knowledge_quotes System_quotes Disposition_quotes Prediction_quotes Differences_quotes Situation_quotes Infinity_quotes Possibility_quotes Variety_quotes Full_quotes Possible_quotes

Method of Science

“The method of science depends on our attempts to describe the world with simple theories: theories that are complex may become untestable, even if they happen to be true. Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification — the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.”
  • Source: Karl Raimund Popper, Karl Raimund Popper and William Warren Bartley (ed.), The Open Universe: an Argument for Indeterminism (1991), 44. by Karl Raimund Popper, William Warren Bartley - Science - 1991
Keywords: Methodology_quotes Science_quotes Dependence_quotes Attempt_quotes Description_quotes World_quotes Simplicity_quotes Theory_quotes Complexity_quotes Testing_quotes True_quotes Truth_quotes Art_quotes System_quotes Discern_quotes Advantage_quotes Omit_quotes Untestable_quotes

Considerations

“These considerations led me in the winter of 1919-20 to conclusions which I may now reformulate as follows.
1. Confirmation is easy.
2. Only risky predictions should count.
3. A good theory is a prohibition.
4. A theory which is not refutable is not scientific.
5. A genuine test is an attempt to falsify a theory.
6. Confirming evidence should not count unless it attempted to falsify.
7. Some genuine testable theories, when found to be false, are still upheld by their admirers.”
Keywords: Consideration_quotes Conclusion_quotes Reformulate_quotes Confirmation_quotes Easy_quotes Risk_quotes Prediction_quotes Count_quotes Good_quotes Theory_quotes Prohibition_quotes Refutation_quotes Science_quotes Genuine_quotes Testing_quotes Attempt_quotes Falsification_quotes Evidence_quotes False_quotes Uphold_quotes Admire_quotes

No Conclusive Disproof

“No conclusive disproof of a theory can ever be produced; for it is always possible to say that the experimental results are not reliable.”
  • Source: Popper, K. R. (2005). The Logic of Scientific Discovery | 1935 (1935/Epub ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Chap. 2
Keywords: Conclusive_quotes Disproof_quotes Proof_quotes Theory_quotes Production_quotes Possibility_quotes Experiment_quotes Result_quotes Reliability_quotes

Epistemology

“In accordance with my proposal made above, epistemology, or the logic of scientific discovery, should be identified with the theory of scientific method. The theory of method, in so far as it goes beyond the purely logical analysis of the relations between scientific statements, is concerned with the choice of methods — with decisions about the way in which scientific statements are to be dealt with. These decisions will of course depend in their turn upon the aim which we choose from among a number of possible aims. The decision here proposed for laying down suitable rules for what I call the ‘empirical method’ is closely connected with my criterion of demarcation: I propose to adopt such rules as will ensure the testability of scientific statements; which is to say, their falsifiability.”
  • Source: Chapter 2. Popper, K. R. (2005). The Logic of Scientific Discovery | 1935 (1935/Epub ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Keywords: According_quotes Proposal_quotes Epistemology_quotes Logic_quotes Science_quotes Discovery_quotes Identity_quotes Theory_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Methodology_quotes Beyond_quotes Analysis_quotes Relationship_quotes Statement_quotes Concern_quotes Choice_quotes Decision_quotes Way_quotes Deal_quotes Dependence_quotes Aim_quotes Number_quotes Possibility_quotes Rule_quotes Law_quotes Empirical_quotes Connection_quotes Criteria_quotes Demarcation_quotes Adopt_quotes Ensure_quotes Testing_quotes Testability_quotes Falsification_quotes Pure_quotes

Rittel_and_Webber

Planning Problems are Wicked Problems

“A great many barriers keep us from perfecting such a planning/governing system. Theory is inadequate for decent forecasting, our intelligence is insufficient to our tasks, plurality of objectives held by pluralities of politics makes it impossible to pursue unitary aims, and so on. The difficulties attached to rationality are tenacious, and we have so far been unable to get untangled from their web. This is partly because the classical paradigm of science and engineering - the paradigm that has underlain modern professionalism - is not applicable to the problems of open societal systems.”
Keywords: Great_quotes Barrier_quotes Keep_quotes Perfect_quotes Plan_quotes Govern_quotes System_quotes Theory_quotes Inadequate_quotes Decent_quotes Forecast_quotes Intelligence_quotes Insufficient_quotes Task_quotes Pluralistic_quotes Objective_quotes Political_quotes Impossibility_quotes Pursuit_quotes Unitary_quotes Aim_quotes Difficulty_quotes Attach_quotes Rational_quotes Tenacious_quotes Untangle_quotes Web_quotes Classical_quotes Paradigm_quotes Science_quotes Engineering_quotes Modern_quotes Professional_quotes Applicable_quotes Problem_quotes Society_quotes

Bertrand_Russell

Rational Man

“Thus the rational man, who attaches to each proposition the right degree of credibility, will be guided by the mathematical theory of probability when it is applicable.”
  • Source: Russell, B. (1948). Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster. Part V Chap. 6.
Keywords: Reason_quotes Humanity_quotes Man_quotes Attach_quotes Proposal_quotes Right_quotes Degree_quotes Credibility_quotes Guide_quotes Mathematics_quotes Theory_quotes Probability_quotes Application_quotes

Exact Theory Beyond Human Powers

“A wholly exact theory is utterly beyond human powers. Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.”
Keywords: Exact_quotes Theory_quotes Beyond_quotes Humanity_quotes Power_quotes Seem_quotes Paradox_quotes Science_quotes Domination_quotes Idea_quotes Approximation_quotes Safe_quotes Inference_quotes Inexact_quotes Truth_quotes Man_quotes

Erwin_Schrödinger

Quantum Discreteness

“The great revelation of quantum theory was that features of discreteness were discovered in the Book of Nature.”
  • Source: Erwin Schrödinger in the book “What is Life?”, chapter 4. Contained within the anthology “What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”. Published in 1992 and reprinted in 2013 by Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. ISBN: 9781107604667. Online at <http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/schrodinger-what-is-life-mind-matter-auto-sketches.pdf> retrieved 2024. Note: “What is Life?” originally published separately in 1944.
Keywords: Revelation_quotes Quantum_quotes Theory_quotes Feature_quotes Discrete_quotes Discover_quotes Book_quotes Nature_quotes

Observation and Theory

“Scientific theories serve to facilitate the survey of our observations and experimental findings... This procedure, while very useful for our remembering the facts in a well-ordered pattern, tends to obliterate the distinction between the actual observations and the theory arisen from them. And since the former always are of some sensual quality, theories are easily thought to account for sensual qualities; which, of course, they never do.”
  • Source: Erwin Schrödinger in the book “Mind and Matter”, chapter 6. Contained within the anthology “What is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches”. Published in 1992 and reprinted in 2013 by Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. ISBN: 9781107604667. Online at <http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/schrodinger-what-is-life-mind-matter-auto-sketches.pdf> retrieved 2024. Note: “Mind and Matter” originally published separately in 1944.
Keywords: Science_quotes Theory_quotes Serve_quotes Facilitate_quotes Survey_quotes Observation_quotes Experiment_quotes Finding_quotes Procedure_quotes Useful_quotes Remember_quotes Fact_quotes Pattern_quotes Tend_quotes Obliterate_quotes Distinction_quotes Actual_quotes Arise_quotes Sensual_quotes Quality_quotes Easy_quotes Thought_quotes Account_quotes

Rupert_Sheldrake

Multiverse

“This multiverse theory is the ultimate violation of Occam’s Razor, the philosophical principle that ‘entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity,' or in other words, that we should make as few assumptions as possible. It also has the major disadvantage of being untestable. And it does not even succeed in getting rid of God. An infinite God could be the God of an infinite number of universes.”
  • Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The book “Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery”, Introduction, page 12. Published in 2012 by Crown Publishing, New York, NY. Kindle Edition. ISBN: 978-0-7704-3671-1.
Keywords: Multiverse_quotes Theory_quotes Ultimate_quotes Occam(topic)_quotes OccamsRazor_quotes Philosophy_quotes Principle_quotes Entity_quotes Multiply_quotes Beyond_quotes Necessity_quotes Assumption_quotes Possible_quotes Major_quotes Disadvantage_quotes Testing_quotes Success_quotes Rid_quotes God_quotes Infinite_quotes Number_quotes Universe_quotes

Evolutionary Randomness

“In neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory randomness plays a central role through the chance mutations of genes, which are quantum events. With different chance events, evolution would happen differently.”
  • Source: Rupert Sheldrake. The book “Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery”, Prologue, page 15. Published in 2012 by Crown Publishing, New York, NY. Kindle Edition. ISBN: 978-0-7704-3671-1.
Keywords: Neo-Darwinism_quotes Darwinism_quotes Theory_quotes Random_quotes Play_quotes Central_quotes Role_quotes Chance_quotes Mutation_quotes Gene_quotes Quantum_quotes Event_quotes Different_quotes Evolution_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Invisible Hand

“In examining the processes of social coordination, economics has given top billing sometimes almost exclusive billing to the market mechanism. It is indeed a remarkable mechanism... The optimality theorems stretch credibility, so far as real-world markets are concerned, because they require substantive rationality of the kinds we found implausible in our examination of the theory of the firm. Markets populated by consumers and producers who satisfice instead of optimizing do not meet the conditions on which the theorems rest.”
Keywords: Examination_quotes Process_quotes Social_quotes Coordination_quotes Economics_quotes Top_quotes Bill_quotes Exclusive_quotes Market_quotes Mechanism_quotes Optimal_quotes Theory_quotes Stretch_quotes Credible_quotes Reality_quotes World_quotes Substance_quotes Rational_quotes Plausible_quotes Examination_quotes Firm_quotes Population_quotes Consumer_quotes Producer_quotes Satisfice_quotes Optimization_quotes Condition_quotes Invisible_quotes Hand_quotes

Game Theory

“Game theory's most valuable contribution has been to show that rationality is effectively undefinable when competitive actors have unlimited computational capabilities for outguessing each other, but that the problem does not arise as acutely in a world, like the real world, of bounded rationality.”
Keywords: Game_quotes Theory_quotes Value_quotes Contribution_quotes Rational_quotes Effectiveness_quotes Definition_quotes Competition_quotes Actor_quotes Unlimited_quotes Limitation_quotes Computation_quotes Capability_quotes Guess_quotes Problem_quotes Arise_quotes Acute_quotes World_quotes Reality_quotes Bounding_quotes Rational_quotes Undefinable_quotes Outguess_quotes

Anthony_Standen

True Conclusions

“But although in theory physicists realize that their conclusions are ...not certainly true, this ... does not really sink into their consciousness. Nearly all the time ...they ... act as if Science were indisputably True, and what's more, as if only science were true ...Any information obtained otherwise than by the scientific method, although it may be true, the scientists will call 'unscientific,' using this word as a smear word, by bringing in the connotation from its original [Greek] meaning, to imply that the information is false, or at any rate slightly phony.”
  • Source: Anthony Standen, In Science is a Sacred Cow (1950), 176-77.
Keywords: Theory_quotes Physicist_quotes Realization_quotes Conclusion_quotes Certainty_quotes True_quotes Sink_quotes Consciousness_quotes Time_quotes Act_quotes Science_quotes Indisputable_quotes Information_quotes Obtain_quotes Scientific_Method_quotes Unscientific_quotes Word_quotes Smear_quotes Connotation_quotes Original_quotes Meaning_quotes Imply_quotes False_quotes Phony_quotes Method_quotes

Alfred_Russel_Wallace

Truth Proof

“There is no more convincing proof of the truth of a comprehensive theory than its power of absorbing and finding a place for new facts, and its capability of interpreting phenomena which had been previously looked upon as unaccountable anomalies. It is thus that the law of universal gravitation and the undulatory theory of light have become established and universally accepted by men of science. Fact after fact has been brought forward as being apparently inconsistent with them, and one after another these very facts have been shown to be the consequences of the laws they were at first supposed to disprove. A false theory will never stand this test. Advancing knowledge brings to light whole groups of facts which it cannot deal with, and its advocates steadily decrease in numbers, notwithstanding the ability and scientific skill with which it may have been supported.”
  • Source: Alfred Russel Wallace, From a review of four books on the subject 'Mimicry, and Other Protective Resemblances Among Animals', in The Westminster Review (Jul 1867), 88, 1. Wallace is identified as the author within the article as reprinted in William Beebe, The Book of Naturalists: An Anthology of the Best Natural History (1988), 108.
Keywords: Convince_quotes Proof_quotes Truth_quotes Comprehension_quotes Theory_quotes Power_quotes Absorb_quotes Find_quotes Place_quotes Fact_quotes Capability_quotes Interpretation_quotes Phenomena_quotes Unaccount_quotes Anomalies_quotes Law_quotes Universal_quotes Gravity_quotes Undulate_quotes Light_quotes Establish_quotes Acceptance_quotes Man_quotes Science_quotes Inconsistent_quotes Consequence_quotes Disproof_quotes False_quotes Stand_quotes Testing_quotes Advance_quotes Knowledge_quotes Group_quotes Deal_quotes Advocate_quotes Decrease_quotes Number_quotes Ability_quotes Skill_quotes Support_quotes Apparent_quotes Suppose_quotes

William_Whewell

Mask of Theory

“There is a mask of theory over the whole face of nature, if it be theory to infer more than we see.”
Keywords: Mask_quotes Theory_quotes Face_quotes Nature_quotes Inference_quotes See_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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