Best argument & science Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“LEAD, n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used ... as a counterpoise to an argument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrong way. An interesting fact in the chemistry of international controversy is that at the point of contact of two patriotisms lead is precipitated in great quantities.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

“The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.”

Ifs Made Said Sometimes Reason Science Order Principles Ought Illusion Deserve Argument Claims Conviction Arguing Rational Consistent Irrational Arbitrary

Author:Carl Sagan

“Let us begin to understand the argument. There is a solution to everything: Science.”

Truth Science Solutions Argument

Book:Collected Poems, 1919-1976

Source: Collected Poems, 1919-1976

“The [first] argument asserts the non-existence of motion on the ground that that which is in locomotion must arrive at the half-way stage before it arrives at the goal.”

Way Firsts Science Goal Existence Half Stage Argument Notion Half Way Non Existence

Author:Zeno of Elea

“The second [argument about motion] is the so-called Achilles, and it amounts to this, that in a race the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started, so that the slower must always hold a lead. Statement of the Achilles and the Tortoise paradox in the relation of the discrete to the continuous.; perhaps the earliest example of the reductio ad absurdum method of proof.”

Firsts Science Race Example Amount Argument Relation Mathematics Method Proof Statements Paradox Ads Runners Pursued Achilles Tortoises Discrete

Author:Zeno of Elea

“In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."”

“The strongest arguments prove nothing so long as the conclusions are not verified by experience. Experimental science is the queen of sciences and the goal of all speculation.”

Long Science Goal Prove Argument Experience Conclusion Queens Strongest Speculation Experimental Science

Author:Roger Bacon

“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.”

“Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”

Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian

“The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.”

Ideas Science Argument Positive Atheism Cures Suppression Pale Blue Dot

Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

“I'm sorry to say that the subject I most disliked was mathematics. I have thought about it. I think the reason was that mathematics leaves no room for argument. If you made a mistake, that was all there was to it.”

Ifs Thinking Made Reason Science Rooms Mistake Subjects Argument Mathematics Sorry Math Mathematical I'm Sorry Made A Mistake Math And Science Mathematics And Science Math Education

Book:The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“No Geologist worth anything is permanently bound to a desk or laboratory, but the charming notion that true science can only be based on unbiased observation of nature in the raw is mythology. Creative work, in geology and anywhere else, is interaction and synthesis: half-baked ideas from a bar room, rocks in the field, chains of thought from lonely walks, numbers squeezed from rocks in a laboratory, numbers from a calculator riveted to a desk, fancy equipment usually malfunctioning on expensive ships, cheap equipment in the human cranium, arguments before a road cut.”

“Many persons nowadays seem to think that any conclusion must be very scientific if the arguments in favor of it are derived from twitching of frogs' legs (especially if the frogs are decapitated) and that, on the other hand, any doctrine chiefly vouched for by the feelings of human beings (with heads on their shoulders) must be benighted and superstitious.”

Ifs Thinking Humans Persons Feelings Hands Seems Science Human Beings Argument Legs Favors Shoulders Doctrine Conclusion Frogs Superstitious Twitching

Author:William James

“Rational argument can be defeated by refusing to argue rationally.”

Science Argument Arguing Rational Defeated

Author:Steven Weinberg

“When a man finds a conclusion agreeable, he accepts it without argument, but when he finds it disagreeable, he will bring against it all the forces of logic and reason.”

Men Reason Science Force Accepting Argument Logic Conclusion Skepticism Skeptical Skeptic Disagreeable

Author:Thucydides

“Even fairly good students, when they have obtained the solution of the problem and written down neatly the argument, shut their books and look for something else. Doing so, they miss an important and instructive phase of the work. ... A good teacher should understand and impress on his students the view that no problem whatever is completely exhausted.”

“Evolution has encountered no intellectual trouble; no new arguments have been offered. Creationism is a home-grown phenomenon of American sociocultural history-a splinter movement ... who believe that every word in the Bible must be literally true, whatever such a claim might mean.”

Believe Mean Has Beens Home Might Science Religion Belief Trouble Movement Evolution Intellectual Argument Claims Phenomenon Creationism Splinters

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

“No great advance has ever been made in science, politics, or religion, without controversy.”

Made Science Religion Liberty Achievement Argument Accounts Ministers Controversy Advancement Disagreement Advancing Presbyterians Controversial Topics

Author:Lyman Beecher

“A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.”

Trying Mind Science Understanding Freedom Simple Issues Lessons Authority Argument Accounts Complexes Experiments Guarantees Dogma Publish

Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Source: Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

“Science, by itself, cannot supply us with an ethic. It can show us how to achieve a given end, and it may show us that some ends cannot be achieved. But among ends that can be achieved our choice must be decided by other than purely scientific considerations. If a man were to say, "I hate the human race, and I think it would be a good thing if it were exterminated," we could say, "Well, my dear sir, let us begin the process with you." But this is hardly argument, and no amount of science could prove such a man mistaken.”

“The classification of facts and the formation of absolute judgments upon the basis of this classification-judgments independent of the idiosyncrasies of the individual mind-essentially sum up the aim and method of modern science. The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own.”

Source: The Grammar of Science

“There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever desires to be well received in female assemblies, must qualify himself by a total rejection of all that is serious, rational, or important; must consider argument or criticism as perpetually interdicted; and devote all his attention to trifles, and all his eloquence to compliment.”

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments, and common sense; and have no other preliminaries to settle with the reader, than that he will divest himself of prejudice and repossession, and suffer his reason and feelings to determine for themselves; and that he will put on, or rather that he will not put off, the true character of man, and generously enlarge his view beyond the present day.”

Men Reason Character Facts Feelings Science Suffering Simple Views Common Reader Offers Pages Argument Prejudice Determine Following Common Sense Settling Present Day True Character

Author:Thomas Paine

“The love of experiment was very strong in him [Charles Darwin], and I can remember the way he would say, "I shan't be easy till I have tried it," as if an outside force were driving him. He enjoyed experimenting much more than work which only entailed reasoning, and when he was engaged on one of his books which required argument and the marshalling of facts, he felt experimental work to be a rest or holiday.”

Source: The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: Including an Autobiographical Chapter

“[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true.”

Firsts Two Self Sometimes Facts Science Perfect Authority Argument Tools Sacred Obvious Assumption Unexpected Worthless Ongoing Not Perfect Inconsistent Discarded Correcting Misused True Fact

Book:Cosmos

Source: Cosmos

“I would proclaim that the vast majority of what [say, Scientific American] is true-yet my ability to defend such a claim is weaker than I would like. And most likely the readers, authors, and editors of that magazine would be equally hard pressed to come up with cogent, non-technical arguments convincing a skeptic of this point, especially if pitted against a clever lawyer arguing the contrary. How come Truth is such a slippery beast?”

Source: Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern

“Any work of science, no matter what its point of departure, cannot become fully convincing until it crosses the boundary between the theoretical and the experimental: Experimentation must give way to argument, and argument must have recourse to experimentation.”

Way Giving Matter Science Argument Crosses No Matter What Boundaries Experiments Convincing Theoretical Departure Experimentation Recourse

Author:Gaston Bachelard

“If Watson and I had not discovered the [DNA] structure, instead of being revealed with a flourish it would have trickled out and that its impact would have been far less. For this sort of reason Stent had argued that a scientific discovery is more akin to a work of art than is generally admitted. Style, he argues, is as important as content. I am not completely convinced by this argument, at least in this case.”

Ifs Has Beens Art Important Reason Science Cases Style Discovery Argument Importance Impact Structure Convinced Arguing Works Of Art Dna Watson Scientific Discovery

Author:Francis Crick

“The office of science is not to record possibilities; but to ascertain what nature does ... As far as Darwinism deals with mere arguments of possibilities or even probabilities, without a basis of fact, it departs from the true scientific method and injures science, as most of the devotees of the new ism have already done.”

Doe Done Facts Science Nature Deals Records Possibility Office Argument Bases Method Mere Probability Scientific Method Darwinism Isms Devotee

Author:Louis Agassiz

“I certainly do care about measuring educational results. But what is an 'educational result?' The twinkling eyes of my students, together with their heartfelt and beautifully expressed mathematical arguments are all the results I need.”

Needs Eye Care Together Science Results Students Argument Mathematics Educational Math Mathematical Heartfelt Measuring Twinkling

Author:Keith Devlin

“The argument advanced by the supporters of the theory of hereditary transmission does not furnish a satisfactory explanation of the cause of the inequalities and diversities of the universe.”

Doe Science Universe Causes Theory Diversity Argument Inequality Explanation Supporter Transmission Hereditary

Book:Vedanta Philosophy

Source: Vedanta Philosophy

“Further, the same Arguments which explode the Notion of Luck, may, on the other side, be useful in some Cases to establish a due comparison between Chance and Design: We may imagine Chance and Design to be, as it were, in Competition with each other, for the production of some sorts of Events, and may calculate what Probability there is, that those Events should be rather be owing to the one than to the other.”

Should May Science Sides Chance Cases Imagine Events Design Argument Luck Competition Notion Productions Dues Comparison Probability Owing

Author:Abraham de Moivre

“This incomparable Author having at length been prevailed upon to appear in public, has in this Treatise given a most notable instance of the extent of the powers of the Mind; and has at once shown what are the Principles of Natural Philosophy, and so far derived from them their consequences, that he seems to have exhausted his Argument, and left little to be done by those that shall succeed him.a”

“It appears to me that those who rely simply on the weight of authority to prove any assertion, without searching out the arguments to support it, act absurdly. I wish to question freely and to answer freely without any sort of adulation. That well becomes any who are sincere in the search for truth.”

Wells Truth Science Wish Freedom Answers Support Prove Authority Argument Weight Rely Sincere Questioning Proven Absurdity Assertion Scientific Method Search For Truth Adulation

Author:Vincenzo Galilei

“Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God - the design argument of Paley - updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one.... Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument.”

“But having considered everything which has been said, one could by this believe that the earth and not the heavens is so moved, and there is no evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, this seems prima facie as much, or more, against natural reason as are all or several articles of our faith. Thus, that which I have said by way of diversion (esbatement) in this manner can be valuable to refute and check those who would impugn our faith by argument.”

Way Believe Has Beens Said Reason Seems Earth Science Heaven Natural Evidence Argument Moved Valuable Contrary Checks Articles Nevertheless Diversion

Author:Nicole Oresme

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