#theories

Philosophical theories or ideas, as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might otherwise pass unregarded by us. ↗

— Walter Pater

#gather #help #ideas #instruments #may

It is always incorrect to assume you can know what someone's moral convictions are based on their philosophical theories. ↗

— Stanley Fish

#assume #based #convictions #incorrect #know

You were probably educated in the conventional economic theories of your period which were magnificent and most ingenious, but--if you will pardon my saying so--all wrong. ↗

— Robert A. Heinlein

#theories #education

There are, of course, inherent tendencies to repetition in music itself. Our poetry, our ballads, our songs are full of repetition; nursery rhymes and the little chants and songs we use to teach young children have choruses and refrains. We are attracted to repetition, even as adults; we want the stimulus and the reward again and again, and in music we get it. Perhaps, therefore, we should not be surprised, should not complain if the balance sometimes shifts too far and our musical sensitivity becomes a vulnerability. ↗

— Oliver Sacks

#hypotheses #hypothesis #music #neuroscience #psychology

The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence. ↗

— National Academy of Sciences

#facts #opinions #science #theories #nature

The four stages of acceptance: 1. This is worthless nonsense. 2. This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view. 3. This is true, but quite unimportant. 4. I always said so." (Review of The Truth About Death, in: Journal of Genetics 1963, Vol. 58, p.464) ↗

— J.B.S. Haldane

#dispute #haldane #opportunism #science #self-contradiction

When you have a regime that would be happier in the afterlife than in this life, this is not a regime that is subject to classic theories of deterrence. ↗

— John Bolton

#classic #deterrence #happier #life #regime

Some of you may have been hoping that today I would speak about Lucien Bouchard's latest economic theories. But I have decided to spare him for the time being: after all, he is a man. ↗

— Kim Campbell

#after #been #being #decided #economic

In art, theories are as useful as a doctor's prescription; one must be sick to believe them. ↗

— Maurice de Vlaminck

#believe #doctor #must #prescription #sick

I wouldn't have thought that a wrong theory should lead us to understand better the ordinary quantum field theories or to have new insights about the quantum states of black holes. ↗

— Edward Witten

#better #black #black holes #field #holes