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Theory Quotes

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Theory Quotes

“The unphilosophical majority among men are the ones most helplessly dependent on their era's dominant ideas. In times of crises these men need the guidance of some kind of theory; but, being unfamiliar with the field of ideas, they do not know that alternatives to the popular theories are possible. They know only what they have always been taught.”

Knows Men Needs Kind Ideas Fields Taught Theory Crisis Majority Alternatives Eras Guidance Dependent Dominant Unfamiliar Times Of Crisis

Book:Ominous Parallels

Source: Ominous Parallels

“Those, who are strongly wedded to what I shall call 'the classical theory', will fluctuate, I expect, between a belief that I am quite wrong and a belief that I am saying nothing new. It is for others to determine if either of these or the third alternative is right.”

Ifs Belief History Power Learning Theory Economics Thirds Determine Alternatives Nothing New Saying Nothing

Book:General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money

Source: General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money

“To avert the danger [posed by theory] to life, Nietzsche could choose one of two ways: he could insist on the strictly esoteric character of the theoretical analysis of life - that is, restore the Platonic notion of the noble delusion - or else he could deny the possibility of theory proper and so conceive of thought as essentially subservient to, or dependent on, life or fate... If not Nietzsche himself, at any rate his successors [Heidegger] adopted the second alternative.”

“Even though their arguments did not invoke religion, I think we all know what's behind these arguments. They're trying to protect religious beliefs from contradiction by science. They used to do it by prohibiting teachers from teaching evolution at all; then they wanted to teach intelligent design as an alternative theory; now they want the supposed "weaknesses" in evolution pointed out. But it's all the same program - it's all an attempt to let religious ideas determine what is taught in science courses.”

“If cosmological theory were dominated by women, who are no strangers to cycles, how can we know for sure that we wouldn't then be told that the oscillating universe is the more aesthetically fulfilling alternative?”

Ifs Knows Culture Universe Theory Stranger Alternatives Cycles Fulfilling

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“My colleague Sen. Rick Santorum, Pennsylvania Republican, erroneously suggested that I support the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biological evolution. That simply is not true. ... Unlike biological evolution, intelligent design is not a genuine scientific theory and, therefore, has no place in the curriculum of our nation's public school science classes.”

“Knowledge is not a series of self-consistent theories that converges toward an ideal view; it is rather an ever increasing ocean of mutually incompatible (and perhaps even incommensurable) alternatives, each single theory, each fairy tale, each myth that is part of the collection forcing the others into greater articulation and all of them contributing, via this process of competition, to the development of our consciousness.”

Source: Against method: outline of an anarchistic theory of knowledge

“I prefer to subscribe to that whole, “everything happens for a reason” theory, mostly because the alternative is too disturbing to think about.”

Thinking Reason Whole Happens Theory Things Happen Alternatives Disturbing Everything Happens For A Reason Happens For A Reason

Book:Watch Me

Source: Watch Me

“Our theories are wedged and controlled as nothing else is. Yet sometimes alternative theoretic formulas are equally compatible with all the truths we know, and then we choose between them for subjective reasons. We choose the kind of theory to which we are already partial: we follow 'elegenace' or 'economy'”

Knows Kind Sometimes Reason Truth Economy Theory Alternatives Controlled Formulas Now And Then Subjective Compatible

Book:Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth

Source: Pragmatism and the Conception of Thruth

“The U theory suggests that the central integrating thought ... will emerge from building three integrated capacities: a new capacity for observing that no longer fragments the observer from what's observed; a new capacity for stillness that no longer fragments who we really are from what's emerging; and a new capacity for creating alternative realities that no longer fragments the wisdom of the head, heart and hand.”

Heart Hands Reality Three Building Theory Creating Capacity Alternatives Stillness Observers Fragments Observing Emerging Integrated Integrating Hearts And Hands

Book:Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

Source: Presence: An Exploration of Profound Change in People, Organizations, and Society

“The theory that the biosphere was created without evolution, a few thousand years ago, is ruled out by overwhelming scientific evidence. To claim that there are 'alternative (always better) Biblical explanations of the same data', which make creationism a reasonable alternative to our best theories of biology and physics, is appalling intellectual dishonesty.”

“To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.”

Should Wells Facts Used Theory Evolution Alternatives Explanation Imperfect Classroom Grounded Propositions Hypothesis Thrust Pretext Scientific Theory Theory Of Evolution

Author:Jon Jones

“Letting the religious right teach ID in schools is like letting the Marines teach poetry in advanced combat training. As a scientist, I see these the relevancy between the two sets to be equal. If Kansas is going to mess up like this, the least it can do is not be hypocritical and allow equal time for other alternative "theories" like FSMism, which is by far the tastier choice.”

Ifs Two School Choices Can Do Religious Teach Theory Equal Training Scientist Mess Alternatives Combat Marine Kansas Hypocritical

Author:Julian Simon

“There may be rhetoric about the socially constructed nature of Western science, but wherever it matters, there is no alternative. There are no specifically Hindu or Taoist designs for mobile phones, faxes or televisions. There are no satellites based on feminist alternatives to quantum theory. Even that great public sceptic about the value of science, Prince Charles, never flies a helicopter burning homeopathically diluted petrol, that is, water with only a memory of benzine molecules, maintained by a schedule derived from reading tea leaves, and navigated by a crystal ball.”

“I venture to give an alternative method of regarding the processes occurring in the electric field, which I have often found useful and which is, from a mathematical point of view, equivalent to Maxwell's Theory.”

Giving Found Process Views Fields Theory Method Point Of View Alternatives Mathematical Electric Venture Maxwell

Book:Notes on Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism: Intended as a Sequel to Professor Clerk-Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

Source: Notes on Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism: Intended as a Sequel to Professor Clerk-Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

“If we are going to teach creation science as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction.”

Ifs Should Teach Creation Theory Evolution Atheist Alternatives Reproduction Creation Science Storks

Author:Judith Hayes

“Evolutionary game theory was originally developed as an alternative to the hypothesis of group selection; now it is clear that game theory models postulate group selection, even if they do not use the g-word.”

Ifs Use Games Clear Groups Theory Models Alternatives Hypothesis Selection

Author:Elliott Sober