Science and Nature News
Ernest Becker
Home Video * Photos
PANGEA PROGRESS
What is Science...
Science is organized knowledge. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) English philosopher. Education.
Science is the systematic classification of experience. George Henry Lewes (1817-78) English writer and critic.
Science is simply common sense at its best that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist.
Science is nothing but trained and organized common sense differing from the latter only as a veteran may differ from a raw recruit: and its methods differ from those of common sense only as far as the guardsman's cut and thrust differ from the manner in which a savage wields his club. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist. "The Method of Zadig" in Collected Essays IV.
Science is nothing but developed perception, interpreted intent, common sense rounded out and minutely articulated. George Santayana (1863-1952) U. S. philosopher and writer. The Life of Reason.
Science is facts; just as houses are made of stone, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house, and a collection of facts is not necessarily science. Jules Henri Poincaré (1854-1912) French mathematician.
Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. Adam Smith (1723-90) Scottish economist. The Wealth of Nations, 1776.
Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician.
It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious. Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English philosopher and mathematician.
[Science is] the labor and handicraft of the mind. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English essayist, philosopher, statesman.
[Science is] the literature of truth. Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818-85) U. S. humorist.
[Science is] a series of judgments, revised without ceasing. Pierre Emile Duclaux (1840-1904) French biochemist, bacteriologist.
[Science is] the desire to know causes. William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English essayist.
[Science is] an imaginative adventure of the mind seeking truth in a world of mystery. Sir Cyril Herman Hinshelwood (1897-1967) English chemist. Nobel prize 1956.
[Science is] the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one fact upon another. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher, author.
[Science is] piecemeal revelation. Oliver Wendell Holmes 1 (1809-94) U. S. poet, essayist, physician.
[Science is] a great game. It is inspiring and refreshing. The playing field is the universe itself. Isidor Isaac Rabi (1898-1988) U. S. physicist. Nobel prize 1944.
[Science is] not belief, but the will to find out. Anon
In essence, science is a perpetual search for an intelligent and integrated comprehension of the world we live in. Cornelius Bernardus Van Neil (1897- ) U. S. microbiologist.
I venture to define science as a series of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiment and observation and fruitful of further experiments and observations. The test of a scientific theory is, I suggest, its fruitfulness. James Bryant Conant (1893-1978) U. S. Chemist and Educator.
Science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be, and outside of its domain value judgments of all kinds remain necessary. Albert Einstein (1879-1955) U. S. physicist, born in Germany.
QUOTES ABOUT SCIENCE:
Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian system or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were much too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth that are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming. John Burden Sanderson Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist. Possible Worlds and other Essays (1927) "Possible Worlds".
Shall I refuse my dinner because I do not fully understand the process of digestion? Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) English physicist.
The mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with similar energy. It would not perhaps be too fanciful to say that a new idea is the most quickly acting antigen known to science. If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated. Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter (1872-1939) English surgeon.
There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea. Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961) U. S. physicist, Nobel Prize, 1946.
The dispassionate intellect, the open mind, the unprejudiced observer, exist in an exact sense only in a sort of intellectualist folk-lore; states even approaching them cannot be reached without a moral and emotional effort most of us cannot or will not make. Wilfred Batten Lewis Trotter (1872-1939) English surgeon.
[Those] who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make very poor observations. Claude Bernard (1813-78) French physiologist, 1865.
One curious result of this inertia, which deserves to rank among the fundamental 'laws' of nature, is that when a discovery has finally won tardy recognition it is usually found to have been anticipated, often with cogent reasons and in great detail. Ferdinand Canning Scott Schiller (1864-1937) English philosopher in the U. S.
In Science the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not to the man to whom the idea first occurred. Sir William Osler (1849-1919) Canadian physician.
The hypotheses 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. William Whewell (1794-1866) English mathematician, philosopher.
It is a popular delusion that the scientific enquirer is under an obligation not to go beyond generalisation of observed facts...but anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond the facts, rarely get as far. Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) English biologist.
We see only what we know. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, dramatist.
Science increases our power in proportion as it lowers our pride. Claude Bernard (1813-78) French physiologist.
We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician.
I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding of a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) English physicist, mathematician.
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) Italian physicist and astronomer.
Laws of Thermodynamics: 1. You cannot win. 2. You cannot break even. 3. You cannot stop playing the game.
Beyond Science:
Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) German Philosopher
"Our lives begin to end the day we are silent about things that matter"
Author of Blog
Born in the United States of America. Spent my Childhood in Kenya, East Africa. Graduate of George Mason University in Global Affairs with a concentration in Africa and the Middle East.
What I desire is not total agreement but thoughtful people. To share ideas and expand knowledge in the era of globalization.