“Normal science, the activity in which most scientists inevitably spend most all their time, is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like. Normal science often suppresses fundamental novelties because they are necessarily subversive of its basic commitments.” KnowsWorldDoeFactsWisdomPoliticsCommunityEconomySuccessfulTheoryActivityNormalCommitmentScientistAimFundamentalsAssumptionLiberalismPuzzlesNoveltySubversive Author:Thomas Kuhn
“For the artist, the goal of the painting or musical composition is not to convey literal truth, but an aspect of a universal truth that if successful, will continue to move and to touch people even as contexts, societies and cultures change. For the scientist, the goal of a theory is to convey "truth for now"--to replace an old truth, while accepting that someday this theory, too, will be replaced by a new "truth," because that is the way science advances.” PeopleIfsWayMovingArtistCultureGoalAcceptingSuccessfulPaintingTheoryTruth IsAspectScientistUniversalMusicalSomedayCompositionReplacedLiteralUniversal TruthCulture ChangeSociety And CultureMusical Composition Author:Daniel Levitin
“If a psychological Maxwell devises a general theory of mind, he may make it possible for a psychological Einstein to follow with a theory that the mental and the physical are really the same. But this could happen only at the end of a process which began with the recognition that the mental is something completely different from the physical world as we have come to know it through a certain highly successful form of detached objective understanding. Only if the uniqueness of the mental is recognized will concepts and theories be devised especially for the purpose of understanding it.” IfsKnowsWorldMindMayDifferentEndsHappensFormPurposeCertainProcessUnderstandingSuccessfulTheoryConceptsObjectivesPsychologicalRecognitionUniquenessDetachedMaxwell Book:The View From Nowhere Source: The View From Nowhere
“Often they [writers on the study of management] have a point of view based upon intuition and experience. They then offer a cadence of two-paragraph examples carefully selected to "prove" their theory, and then they write "one size fits all" books. The message is, "If you'd do what these companies did, you'd be successful too."” IfsWritingTwoBookViewsCompanyStudySuccessfulExampleTheoryFitOffersProveMessagesManagementSizeIntuitionPoint Of ViewBeing SuccessfulParagraphSelectedCadenceOne Size Fits All Author:Clayton Christensen
“One of the big parts of my decision-making process is knowing that when you're signing up for something, you're signing up for multiple seasons, should it be successful, and in theory, you want it to be successful, but you also want to be doing something that you're enjoying.” WantShouldBigsProcessEnjoyDecisionKnowingSuccessfulTheorySeasonsBeing SuccessfulDecision MakingMultipleSigningDecision Making ProcessSigning Up Author:Tom Ellis
“Ethologists thus have an interest in looking at these capacities for the reliable acquisition of belief, and it is not surprising that they have a name for the true beliefs which are the typical product of these reliable capacities. They call them items of knowledge. So I argue that talk of knowledge may thereby be seen to be embedded within a successful empirical theory.” MayNamesBeliefInterestSuccessfulProductsTheoryCapacityArguingSurprisingTypicalItemsAcquisitionEmbedded Author:Hilary Kornblith
“The fact that these scientific theories have a fine track record of successful prediction and explanation speaks for itself. (Which is not to say that I don't directly discuss the work of those philosophers who would disagree.) But even if we grant this, many will argue that scientific knowledge in humans, and, indeed, reflective knowledge in general, is quite different in kind from the knowledge we see in other animals.” IfsHumansKindDifferentFactsSpeakAnimalSuccessfulRecordsTheoryFineTrackPhilosopherArguingExplanationGrantsDisagreePredictionsScientific KnowledgeScientific TheoryTrack Record Author:Hilary Kornblith
“The classical example of a successful research programme is Newton's gravitational theory: possibly the most successful research programme ever.” SuccessfulExampleTheoryResearchNewtonProgrammes Book:The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Volume 1: Philosophical Papers Source: The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes: Volume 1: Philosophical Papers
“The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena.” SuccessfulTheoryTestsAcceptedMathematicalConsistentDescriptionAccurateQuantumFrameworkQuantum Theory Author:Erwin Schrodinger