“When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably) as a rhetorical device. Such cases do not function as speculations in the pejorative sense - as silly stories that provide insight into complex mechanisms - but rather as idealized illustrations to exemplify a difficult point of theory. (Other fields, like philosophy and the law, use such conjectural cases as a standard device.” NeedsWellsPhilosophyStoriesUseLawDifficultCasesExampleFieldsTheoryStandardsScientistFunctionComplexesInsightSillyDevicesMechanismAbstractionSpeculationIllustrationRhetoricalHypothetical Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
“This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. Our most persistent and spectacular efforts are concerned not with the preservation of what we are but with the building up of an imaginary conception of ourselves in the opinion of others. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter.” MenDesireEffortOpinionBuildingTheoryConcernedPraiseInsightConceptionImaginaryShelterPreservationPersistentImperativesSpectacularBuilding Up Author:Eric Hoffer
“Hoyle's enduring insights into stars, nucleosynthesis, and the large-scale universe rank among the greatest achievements of 20th-century astrophysics. Moreover, his theories were unfailingly stimulating, even when they proved transient.” UniverseStarsCenturyTheoryAchievementEndureInsightScales20th CenturyTransientLarge ScaleAstrophysicsGreatest Achievement Author:Fred Hoyle
“Voltaire remarked that it is possible to kill a flock of sheep by witchcraft if you give them plenty of arsenic at the same time. The sheep, in this figure, may well stand for the complacent apologists of capitalism; Marx's penetrating insight and bitter hatred of oppression supply the arsenic, while the labour theory of value provides the incantations.” IfsGivingWellsMayValuesFiguresTheoryCapitalismHatredInsightOppressionBitterPlentyLabourSheepWitchcraftFlocksComplacentArsenic Book:Essay on Marxian Economics Source: Essay on Marxian Economics
“Commitment to the truth...means a relentless willingness to root out the ways we limit or deceive ourselves from seeing what is, and to continually challenge our theories of why things are the way they are. It means continually broadening our awareness. It also means continually deepening our understanding of the structures underlying current events.” WayMeanUnderstandingChallengesSeeingAwarenessEventsTheoryLimitsCommitmentRootsStructureCurrentsInsightWillingnessDeceivingRelentlessCurrent Events Author:Peter Senge
“We must remember that we do not observe nature as it actually exists, but nature exposed to our methods of perception. The theories determine what we can or cannot observe...Reality is an illusion, albeit a persistent one.” RealityRememberTheoryPerceptionIllusionMethodDetermineInsightExposedPersistent Author:Albert Einstein
“Philosophy, like science, consists of theories or insights arrived at as a result of systemic reflection or reasoning in regard to the data of experience. It involves, therefore, the analysis of experience and the synthesis of the results of analysis into a comprehensive or unitary conception. Philosophy seeks a totality and harmony of reasoned insight into the nature and meaning of all the principal aspects of reality.” PhilosophyRealityResultsTheoryReflectionAspectHarmonyRegardInsightDataAnalysisReasoningConceptionPrincipalComprehensiveTotalitySynthesis Author:Joseph Alexander Leighton
“The First Insight Theory: Mysterious coincidences cause the reconsideration of the inherent mystery that surrounds our individual lives on this planet.” FirstsIndividualCausesMysteryPlanetsTheoryInsightMysteriousSurroundInherentCoincidenceSynchronicityIndividual LifeReconsideration Author:James Redfield
“This food-and-shelter theory concerning man's efforts is without insight. The desire for praise is more imperative than the desire for food and shelter” MenDesireEffortTheoryPraiseInsightShelterImperatives Author:Eric Hoffer
“The first proponent of cortical memory networks on a major scale was neither a neuroscientist nor a computer scientist but .. a Viennes economist: Friedrich von Hayek (1899-1992). A man of exceptionally broad knowledge and profound insight into the operation of complex systems, Hayek applied such insight with remarkable success to economics (Nobel Prize, 1974), sociology, political science, jurisprudence, evolutionary theory, psychology, and brain science (Hayek, 1952).” MenFirstsPoliticalMemoriesBrainPsychologyTheoryComputerMajorsEconomicsScientistProfoundComplexesInsightScalesOperationsRemarkablePrizeBroadsEconomistSociologyPolitical ScienceNobelNobel PrizeComplex SystemsHayekJurisprudenceBrain ScienceVon Hayek Author:Joaquin Fuster
“In the first stage of insight-building, all that researchers can do is observe phenomena. Second, they classify the phenomena in a way that helps them simplify the apparent complexities of the world so they can ignore the meaningless differences and draw connections between the things that really seem to matter. Third, based on the classification system, they propose a theory. The theory is a statement of what causes what and why, and under what circumstances.” WorldWayFirstsMatterHelpingSeemsCausesCan DoDifferencesStageBuildingTheoryCircumstancesDrawsConnectionsThirdsInsightStatementsComplexityMeaninglessProposeSimplifyResearchersClassification Author:Clayton Christensen