Quotes About Explanation

There is always a social explanation for what we see in art," Albert Camus said in 1947. "Only it doesn't explain anything important.

we are all guilty of oversimplification at one point or another. It's an enticing idea. It fulfills our need for instant gratification. We find one thing and scream, "Eureka!" We found IT—the one thing that explains it all. The only trouble is that it never works. We are more likely to squeeze gold from our coffee grinder than we are to meet with success when adopting an idea that has been simplified beyond recognition.

He became as demanding of himself as he was with his players and staff but, in everything he did, he always made it a priority to explain why he was asking them to do something. He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave, working mornings and afternoons at the training ground. Every aspect of running the team had to be under his control: he demanded daily reports and updates from all his staff. Nothing was left to chance.

The explanation is that their science is only a very attenuated form of our universal ignorance.

durent se faire expliquer la situation en un langage qu'ils pouvaient comprendre. Il était possible, bien sûr, de simplement leur donner des ordres sans rien expliquer, mais Shirvan régnait depuis longtemps et savait que la plupart des gens sont plus efficaces quand ils saisissent eux-mêmes de quoi il s'agit. Il

Physical laws provided a trivial explanation for their shrinking. On second thought the connection between shrinking and loss of meaning was not so obvious. Why should it be that as things become small they also become incomprehensible?

How could any theologian explain the meaning of Christian identity in America and fail to engage white supremacy, its primary negation?

Interpretations of interpretations interpreted.

They dusted off the electroshock machine, wired me up, and made blue sparks jump off my Johnson. I was definitely in the spirit when they pulled them electrodes of my head, yes sir. Electroshock isn't used anymore. They said in my case they was making an exception, although they didn't give me no explanation on that. Put me naked in an isolation cell and hosed me down with ice-cold water, too, he said...

The central command computer," he sputtered, his eyes leaking tears. "Republic forces took it out. That's the only explanation." Lyra pressed herself against his back while Jyn cried softly in the carrier. "I don't even need an explanation." What neither of them knew or could have known was that the war, so abruptly begun three years earlier, was just as suddenly over.

The fourfold root of the principle of sufficient reason

We all dream dreams of unity, of purity; we all dream that there's an authoritative voice out there that will explain things, including ourselves.

When a trait is universal, evolutionary biologists look for a genetic explanation and wonder how that gene or genes might enhance survival or reproductive success.

There is no explanation for evil. It must be looked upon as a necessary part of the order of the universe. To ignore it is childish, to bewail it senseless.

I believe in metaphysics. I don't believe in God because I think that is a human simplification of the things we can't explain. But I believe in a greater universe.

Whatever your religious persuasion, if you believe that that the universe is governed by benign forces, at some point you have to explain why there is so much suffering, misfortune and misery in the world.

To the extent that we even understand string theory, it may imply a massive number of possible different universes with different laws of physics in each universe, and there may be no way of distinguishing between them or saying why the laws of physics are the way they are. And if I can predict anything, then I haven't explained anything.

I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: It's like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.

The transgressive nature of biography is rarely acknowledged, but it is the only explanation for biography's status as a popular genre.

Pseudoscientists typically focus on only one explanation for a phenomenon, quickly brushing aside alternative explanations. And, in their desire to support their belief, they are willing to accept flimsy, oftentimes anecdotal, evidence.

drain economics out of the world, and you're left with few tools for explaining anything. Why is our culture the way it is? Why does TV get coarser with each passing year? What makes certain styles or words or ideas suddenly so visible while others disappear?

People are extraordinarily good at ad hoc explanation. According to past research, if people are erroneously led to believe that they are either above or below average at some task, they can explain either their superior or inferior performance with little difficulty.

To live, it seems, is to explain, to justify, and to find coherence among diverse outcomes, characteristics, and causes.

It considered trying to explain their error to them, but what would be the use? They would only go away with hurt feelings. You can't always expect people, or squirrels, to be rational.