"[…] to kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact." (Charles R Darwin, "More Letters of Charles Darwin", Vol 2, 1903)
"Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. That is to say; before you try a complicated hypothesis, you should make quite sure that no simplification of it will explain the facts equally well." (Charles S Peirce," Pragmatism and Pragmaticism", [lecture] 1903)
"But, once again, what the physical states as the result of an experiment is not the recital of observed facts, but the interpretation and the transposing of these facts into the ideal, abstract, symbolic world created by the theories he regards as established." (Pierre-Maurice-Marie Duhem, "The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory", 1908)
"The facts of greatest outcome are those we think
simple; may be they really are so, because they are influenced only by a small
number of well-defined circumstances, may be they take on an appearance of
simplicity because the various circumstances upon which they depend obey the
laws of chance and so come to mutually compensate." (Henri Poincaré,
"The Foundations of Science", 1913)
"The world is an endless variety of facts, linked together by necessary and immutable bonds." (Émile Boutroux, "Natural law in Science and Philosophy", 1914)
"Statistics may be defined as numerical statements of
facts by means of which large aggregates are analyzed, the relations of
individual units to their groups are ascertained, comparisons are made between
groups, and continuous records are maintained for comparative purposes."
(Melvin T Copeland. "Statistical Methods" [in: Harvard Business
Studies, Vol. III, Ed. by Melvin T Copeland, 1917])
"Facts are carpet-tacks under the pneumatic tires of theory." (Austin O’Malley, "Keystones of Thought", 1918)
"The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, ‘Seek simplicity and distrust it’." (Alfred N Whitehead, "The Concept of Nature", 1919)
"[…] the mere collection of facts, without some basis of theory for guidance and elucidation, is foolish and profitless." (Gamaliel Bradford, "Darwin", 1926)
"Observed facts must be built up, woven together, ordered, arranged, systematized into conclusions and theories by reflection and reason, if they are to have full bearing on life and the universe. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts. Wisdom is the establishment of relations. And just because the latter process is delicate and perilous, it is all the more delightful." (Gamaliel Bradford, "Darwin", 1926)
"[…] facts are too bulky to be lugged about conveniently except on the wheels of theory." (Julian Huxley, "Essays of a Biologist", 1929)
"We can invent as many theories we like, and any one of them can be made to fit the facts. But that theory is always preferred which makes the fewest number of assumptions." (Albert Einstein [interview] 1929)
"A system is said to be coherent if every fact in the system is related every other fact in the system by relations that are not merely conjunctive. A deductive system affords a good example of a coherent system." (Lizzie S Stebbing, "A modern introduction to logic", 1930)
"In experimental science facts of the greatest importance are rarely discovered accidentally: more frequently new ideas point the way towards them." (Erwin Schrödinger, "Science and the Human Temperament", 1935)
"Science is the attempt to discover, by means of observation, and reasoning based upon it, first, particular facts about the world, and then laws connecting facts with one another and (in fortunate cases) making it possible to predict future occurrences." (Bertrand Russell, "Religion and Science, Grounds of Conflict", 1935)
"The fundamental gospel of statistics is to push back the domain of ignorance, prejudice, rule-of-thumb, arbitrary or premature decisions, tradition, and dogmatism and to increase the domain in which decisions are made and principles are formulated on the basis of analyzed quantitative facts." (Robert W Burgess, "The Whole Duty of the Statistical Forecaster", Journal of the American Statistical Association , Vol. 32, No. 200, 1937)
"With the help of physical theories we try to find our way through the maze of observed facts, to order and understand the world of our sense impressions." (Albert Einstein & Leopold Infeld, "The Evolution of Physics", 1938)
"We can put it down as one of the principles learned from the history of science that a theory is only overthrown by a better theory, never merely by contradictory facts." (James B Conant, "On Understanding Science", 1947)
"To some people, statistics is ‘quartered pies, cute little battleships and tapering rows of sturdy soldiers in diversified uniforms’. To others, it is columns and columns of numerical facts. Many regard it as a branch of economics. The beginning student of the subject considers it to be largely mathematics." (The Editors, "Statistics, The Physical Sciences and Engineering", The American Statistician, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1948)
"A conceptual scheme is never discarded merely because of a few stubborn facts with which it cannot be reconciled; a conceptual scheme is either modified or replaced by a better one, never abandoned with nothing left to take its place." (James B Conant, "Science and Common Sense", 1951)
"The act of discovery escapes logical analysis; there are no logical rules in terms of which a 'discovery machine' could be constructed that would take over the creative function of the genius. But it is not the logician’s task to account for scientific discoveries; all he can do is to analyze the relation between given facts and a theory presented to him with the claim that it explains these facts. In other words, logic is concerned with the context of justification." (Hans Reichenbach, "The Rise of Scientific Philosophy", 1951)
"The study of inductive inference belongs to the theory
of probability, since observational facts can make a theory only probable but
will never make it absolutely certain." (Hans Reichenbach, "The Rise
of Scientific Philosophy", 1951)
"[…] the grand aim of all science […] is to cover the
greatest possible number of empirical facts by logical deductions from the
smallest possible number of hypotheses or axioms." (Albert Einstein, 1954)
"Science does not begin with facts; one of its tasks is to uncover the facts by removing misconceptions." (Lancelot L Whyte, "Accent on Form", 1954)
"Science is the creation of concepts and their exploration in the facts. It has no other test of the concept than its empirical truth to fact." (Jacob Bronowski, "Science and Human Values", 1956)
"When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing
theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is
supported by great names and generally accepted." (Claude Bernard,
"An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1957)
"Science aims at the discovery, verification, and organization of fact and information [...] engineering is fundamentally committed to the translation of scientific facts and information to concrete machines, structures, materials, processes, and the like that can be used by men." (Eric A Walker, "Engineers and/or Scientists", Journal of Engineering Education Vol. 51, 1961)
"The important distinction between science and those
other systematizations [i.e., art, philosophy, and theology] is that science is
self-testing and self-correcting. Here the essential point of science is
respect for objective fact. What is correctly observed must be believed [...]
the competent scientist does quite the opposite of the popular stereotype of
setting out to prove a theory; he seeks to disprove it." (George G
Simpson, "Notes on the Nature of Science", 1962)
"It is not impossible that our own Model will die a violent death, ruthlessly smashed by an unprovoked assault of new facts […]. (Clive S Lewis, "The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature", 1964)
"A model is a qualitative or quantitative representation of a process or endeavor that shows the effects of those factors which are significant for the purposes being considered. A model may be pictorial, descriptive, qualitative, or generally approximate in nature; or it may be mathematical and quantitative in nature and reasonably precise. It is important that effective means for modeling be understood such as analog, stochastic, procedural, scheduling, flow chart, schematic, and block diagrams." (Harold Chestnut, "Systems Engineering Tools", 1965)
"A model is a useful (and often indispensable)
framework on which to organize our knowledge about a phenomenon. […] It must
not be overlooked that the quantitative consequences of any model can be no
more reliable than the a priori agreement between the assumptions of the model
and the known facts about the real phenomenon. When the model is known to
diverge significantly from the facts, it is self-deceiving to claim
quantitative usefulness for it by appeal to agreement between a prediction of
the model and observation." (John R Philip, 1966)
"To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to accumulate facts, and to do the science of geographical ecology is to search for patterns of plants and animal life that can be put on a map." (Robert H. MacArthur, "Geographical Ecology", 1972)
"Models are not assigned per se uniquely to their
originals. They perform their replacement function: a) for definite – cognitive
and/or handling, model-using – subjects, b) within definite time intervals, c)
under restrictions of definite operations of thought or fact. […] Models are
not only models of something. They are also models for somebody, a human or an
artificial model user. They perform thereby their functions in time, within a
time interval. And finally, they are models for a definite purpose."
(Herbert Stachowiak, "Allgemeine Modelltheorie", 1973)
"No theory ever agrees with all the facts in its
domain, yet it is not always the theory that is to blame. Facts are constituted
by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of
progress. It is also a first step in our attempt to find the principles
implicit in familiar observational notions." (Paul K Feyerabend,
"Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge",
1975)
"Facts do not ‘speak for themselves’; they are read in
the light of theory. Creative thought, in science as much as in the arts, is
the motor of changing opinion. Science is a quintessentially human activity,
not a mechanized, robot-like accumulation of objective information, leading by
laws of logic to inescapable interpretation." (Stephen J Gould, "Ever
Since Darwin", 1977)
"Science has so accustomed us to devising and accepting
theories to account for the facts we observe, however fantastic, that our minds
must begin their manufacture before we are aware of it." (Gene Wolfe,
"Seven American Nights", 1978)
"Science, since people must do it, is a socially
embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition. Much of its
change through time does not record a closer approach to absolute truth, but
the alteration of cultural contexts that influence it so strongly. Facts are not
pure and unsullied bits of information; culture also influences what we see and
how we see it. Theories, moreover, are not inexorable inductions from facts.
The most creative theories are often imaginative visions imposed upon facts;
the source of imagination is also strongly cultural." (Stephen J Gould,
"The Mismeasure of Man", 1980)
"Facts and theories are different things, not rungs in
a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are
structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away
while scientists debate rival theories for explaining them." (Stephen J
Gould "Evolution as Fact and Theory", 1981)
"All great theories are expansive, and all notions so
rich in scope and implication are underpinned by visions about the nature of
things. You may call these visions ‘philosophy’, or ‘metaphor’, or ‘organizing
principle’, but one thing they are surely not - they are not simple inductions
from observed facts of the natural world." (Stephen J Gould, "Time’s
Arrow, Time’s Cycle", 1987)
"Although science literally means ‘knowledge’, the
scientific attitude is concerned much more with rational perception through the
mind and with testing such perceptions against actual fact, in the form of
experiments and observations." (David Bohm & F David Peat,
"Science, Order, and Creativity", 1987)
"Facts do not 'speak for themselves'. They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theory or visions are mere isolated curiosities." (Thomas Sowell, "A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles", 1987)
"[…] no good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong. A theory that did fit all the data would have been ‘carpentered’ to do this and would thus be open to suspicion." (Francis H C Crick, "What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery", 1988)
"The common perception of science as a rational activity, in which one confronts the evidence of fact with an open mind, could not be more false. Facts assume significance only within a pre-existing intellectual structure, which may be based as much on intuition and prejudice as on reason." (Walter Gratzer, The Guardian, 1989)
"On this view, we recognize science to be the search for algorithmic compressions. We list sequences of observed data. We try to formulate algorithms that compactly represent the information content of those sequences. Then we test the correctness of our hypothetical abbreviations by using them to predict the next terms in the string. These predictions can then be compared with the future direction of the data sequence. Without the development of algorithmic compressions of data all science would be replaced by mindless stamp collecting - the indiscriminate accumulation of every available fact. Science is predicated upon the belief that the Universe is algorithmically compressible and the modern search for a Theory of Everything is the ultimate expression of that belief, a belief that there is an abbreviated representation of the logic behind the Universe's properties that can be written down in finite form by human beings." (John D Barrow, New Theories of Everything", 1991)
"The word theory, as used in the natural sciences,
doesn’t mean an idea tentatively held for purposes of argument - that we call a
hypothesis. Rather, a theory is a set of logically consistent abstract
principles that explain a body of concrete facts. It is the logical connections
among the principles and the facts that characterize a theory as truth. No one
element of a theory [...] can be changed without creating a logical
contradiction that invalidates the entire system. Thus, although it may not be
possible to substantiate directly a particular principle in the theory, the
principle is validated by the consistency of the entire logical
structure." (Alan Cromer, "Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of
Science", 1993)
"Worldviews are social constructions, and they channel
the search for facts. But facts are found and knowledge progresses, however
fitfully. Fact and theory are intertwined, and all great scientists understand
the interaction." (Stephen J Gould, "Shields of Expectation - and
Actuality", 1993)
"As a result, surprisingly enough, scientific advance
rarely comes solely through the accumulation of new facts. It comes most often
through the construction of new theoretical frameworks. [..] To understand scientific development, it is
not enough merely to chronicle new discoveries and inventions. We must also
trace the succession of worldviews" (Nancy R Pearcey & Charles B
Thaxton, "The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural
Philosophy", 1994)
"Theories rarely arise as patient inferences forced by accumulated facts. Theories are mental constructs potentiated by complex external prods (including, in idealized cases, a commanding push from empirical reality)." (Stephen J Gould, "Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms" , 1998)
"When we entrust the domain of values to those whose
intellectual concerns are essentially centred on empirical facts, and whose
conceptual frameworks are inevitably constructed around sets of empirical
facts, we need not be surprised if the result is moral confusion." (Ronald
W K Paterson, "The New Patricians", 1998)
"Modeling involves a style of scientific thinking in
which the argument is structured by the model, but in which the application is
achieved via a narrative prompted by an external fact, an imagined event or
question to be answered." (Uskali Mäki, "Fact and Fiction in
Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction", 2002)
"We tackle a multifaceted universe one face at a time,
tailoring our models and equations to fit the facts at hand. Whatever
mechanical conception proves appropriate, that is the one to use. Discovering
worlds within worlds, a practical observer will deal with each realm on its own
terms. It is the only sensible approach to take." (Michael Munowitz,
"Knowing: The Nature of Physical Law", 2005)
"Although fiction is not fact, paradoxically we need
some fictions, particularly mathematical ideas and highly idealized models, to
describe, explain, and predict facts.
This is not because the universe is mathematical, but because our brains
invent or use refined and law-abiding fictions, not only for intellectual pleasure
but also to construct conceptual models of reality." (Mario Bunge,
"Chasing Reality: Strife over Realism", 2006)
"There are no surprising facts, only models that are
surprised by facts; and if a model is surprised by the facts, it is no credit
to that model." (Eliezer S Yudkowsky, "Quantum Explanations",
2008)
"Obviously, the final goal of scientists and
mathematicians is not simply the accumulation of facts and lists of formulas,
but rather they seek to understand the patterns, organizing principles, and
relationships between these facts to form theorems and entirely new branches of
human thought." (Clifford A Pickover, "The Math Book", 2009)
"Each person has a different mental model and,
therefore, potentially a different interpretation of the Facts. The danger
comes when we start to assume that our interpretation of the Facts is the only
interpretation and we believe that what we see and think is the Truth, and that
there is only one Truth." (Robina Chatham & Brian Sutton,
"Changing the IT Leader’s Mindset", 2010)
"Relevance is not something you can predict. It is
something you discover after the fact." (Thomas Sowell, "The Thomas
Sowell Reader", 2011)
"Science does not live with facts alone. In addition to
facts, it needs models. Scientific models fulfill two main functions with
respect to empirical facts." (Andreas Bartels [in "Models, Simulations,
and the Reduction of Complexity", Ed. by Ulrich Gähde et al, 2013)
"A mental representation is a mental structure that corresponds to an object, an idea, a collection of information, or anything else, concrete or abstract, that the brain is thinking about. […] Because the details of mental representations can differ dramatically from field to field, it’s hard to offer an overarching definition that is not too vague, but in essence these representations are preexisting patterns of information - facts, images, rules, relationships, and so on - that are held in long-term memory and that can be used to respond quickly and effectively in certain types of situations." (Anders Ericsson & Robert Pool," Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise", 2016)
"Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and interpreting numerical facts, which we call data. […] Statistics is the science of learning from data." (Moore McCabe & Alwan Craig, "The Practice of Statistics for Business and Economics" 4th Ed., 2016)
"That is the trouble with facts: they sometimes force you to conclusions that differ with your intuition." (Steven G Krantz, "A Primer of Mathematical Writing" 2nd Ed., 2016)
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