Quotes About Theory

At least some of them, I suspect, have turned to probability theory in the hope that it would give them what they had originally expected from a subjectivist or epistemological theory of the attainment of truth through verification; that is, a theory of rational and justifiable belief, based upon observed instances.

Popper espoused what became known as 'falsificationism', the doctrine that what we are interested in the sciences is the conditions under which we should reject a proposed law or theory; the proposition that 'all swans are white' is decisively refuted by one black swan, no matter how often it has been 'verified' by sightings of white swans.

Men seem inclined to react to a problem either by putting forward some theory and clinging to it as long as they can (if it is erroneous they may even perish with it rather than give it up), or by fighting against such a theory, once they have seen its weakness.

There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.

From this point of view the question of the scientific status of Darwinian theory—in the widest sense, the theory of trial and error-elimination—becomes an interesting one. I have come to the conclusion that Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme—a possible framework for testable scientific theories.

The theory I have in mind is one which does not proceed, as it were, from a doctrine of the intrinsic goodness or righteousness of a majority rule, but rather from the baseness of tyranny; or more precisely, it rests upon the decision, or upon the adoption of the proposal, to avoid and to resist tyranny.

Though claiming to be value-free, conventional economic theory cannot escape the fact that value is embedded at its heart: it is wrapped up with the idea of utility, which is defined as a person's satisfaction or happiness gained from consuming a particular bundle of goods.

Economic externalities are framed—thanks to their very name—as a peripheral concern in mainstream theory.

Homo economicus may be the smallest unit of analysis in economic theory—equivalent to the atom in Newton's physics—but, just like an atom, his composition has profound consequences.

not until this stage, implantation, that medical science says pregnancy begins—because medical science sees pregnancy as the changes a woman's body undergoes to produce a baby, not as a notional, theoretical mini-child that no one knows is there. But the blastocyst is still not a person, if that word means anything at all.

My theory of the universe is if God sees you enjoying yourself, he will fuck up the next week of your life completely.

She wasn't even sick, not really. She'd just had a bad reaction to a vaccine. What had been a theory at school in the morning had solidified into fact, at least within my own self.

if you assume a big enough conspiracy, you can explain anything, including the cosmos itself.

Men hold two views of what happiness consists in, viz, having, and doing. To possess much, or to do some great thing, constitutes the sum of human blessedness according to popular theory.

Every theory of love, from Plato down, teaches that each individual loves in the other sex what he lacks in himself.

One rather curious conclusion emerges, that pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. ... For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics.

Phule had propounded the theory of the Aryan invasion as the source of oppression; dalit radicals of the 1920s took it to its extreme; Amedkar denied it.

That's fine in practice, but will it work in theory?

In Victorian times, one of the more serious reasons for opposing Darwin was the fear that his theories would lead to the law of the jungle, the abandonment of ethical constraints in society.

Now he finds a way to embrace truth, not as a body of theoretical knowledge, but as a way of living: not an epistemology, but an ethics, of truth.

Indeed, the proposition that humans have mental characteristics wholly absent in animals confounds the theory of evolution, which, although disputed by some religious extremists, is generally accepted by most educated people throughout the world. Charles Darwin made quite clear that there are no uniquely human characteristics when he wrote that "the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not one of kind.

Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money.

The black asphalt wouls shimmer with vapors I had a theory about those vapors...not released by the sun but by a huge onion buried under the city. This onion made us cry... I thought about the giant onion, that remarkable bulb of sadness.

It shouldn't have happened. But then, theoretically, no collision at sea should. Collisions are invariably an accumulation of small, individually insignificant events which, if unnoticed, make up the formula for disaster. Like this one, where the corvette watchkeeper's irritating elan had needled Evans into a disgruntled attitude