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Theory Quotes

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Theory Quotes

“No matter how we may single out a complex from nature...its theoretical treatment will never prove to be ultimately conclusive... I believe that this process of deepening of theory has no limits.”

Believe May Matter I Believe Process Theory Prove Limits Complexes Treatment Skepticism Theoretical

Author:Albert Einstein

“A complete theory of evolution must acknowledge a balance between "external" forces of environment imposing selection for local adaptation and "internal" forces representing constraints of inheritance and development. Vavilov placed too much emphasis on internal constraints and downgraded the power of selection. But Western Darwinians have erred equally in practically ignoring (while acknowledging in theory) the limits placed on selection by structure and development what Vavilov and the older biologists would have called "laws of form.”

Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

“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.”

Way Mean Understanding Challenges Seeing Awareness Events Theory Limits Commitment Roots Structure Currents Insight Willingness Deceiving Relentless Current Events

Author:Peter Senge

“I became a little alarmed at the number of my readers who took the meme more positively as a theory of human culture in its own right - either to criticize it (unfairly, given my original modest intention) or to carry it far beyond the limits of what I then thought justified. This was why I may have seemed to backtrack.”

Humans May Littles Culture Given Numbers Atheism Theory Reader Limits Originals Intention Positive Atheism Criticize Modest Justified Positively Memes

Book:A Devil's Chaplain

Source: A Devil's Chaplain

“However we select from nature a complex [of phenomena] using the criterion of simplicity, in no case will its theoretical treatment turn out to be forever appropriate (sufficient).... I do not doubt that the day will come when [general relativity], too, will have to yield to another one, for reasons which at present we do not yet surmise. I believe that this process of deepening theory has no limits.”

“One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.”

Source: Against Method

“War is an act of force, and to the application of that force there is no limit. Each of the adversaries forces the hand of the other, and a reciprocal action results which in theory can have no limit.”

War Hands Action Force Results Theory Limits Application Adversaries Reciprocal

Book:On war: Translated from the German by O.J. Matthijs Jolles

Source: On war: Translated from the German by O.J. Matthijs Jolles

“I reject the peak oil theory insofar as it refers to technological limits on human ingenuity.”

Humans Theory Limits Oil Rejects Technological Ingenuity Peak Oil

Author:Robert P. Murphy

“We already know the limits of Einstein's theories. From the centers of black holes at the very beginning of the universe - we call these singularities - Einstein's equations fail. In fact, people have joked that's where God is dividing by zero.”

People Knows Facts Universe Black Failing Theory Limits Holes Zero Equations Dividing Singularity Black Hole

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson