quotations about theory and theories
The theory that can absorb the greatest number of facts, and persists in doing so, generation after generation, through all the changes of opinion and of detail, is the one that must rule all observation.
JOHN WEISS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Not only are facts and theories in constant disharmony, they are never as neatly separated as everyone makes them out to be.
PAUL FEYERABEND
Against Method
No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.
ANDRE GIDE
Journals 1889-1949
There never comes a point where a theory can be said to be true. The most that one can claim for any theory is that it has shared the successes of all its rivals and that it has passed at least one test which they have failed.
A. J. AYER
Philosophy in the Twentieth Century
Conspiracy theories are designed to make lazy under-achievers feel like rigorous scholars -- no person with two braincells to rub together has any respect for them.
JULIE BURCHILL
"The Manchester conspiracy theory mob are a pitiful bunch", The Spectator, May 27, 2017
Professors of theory merely hold post-mortems.
STEPHEN LEACOCK
Last Leaves
The ability to test a theory is an essential aspect of science. No real science is done by just wildly making and sticking by assumptions without testing them.
DOM GALEON
"Stephen Hawking Responds to Colleagues' Critical Article on the Origins of the Universe", Futurism, May 12, 2017
Theories are very thin and unsubstantial; experience only is tangible.
HOSEA BALLOU
Treasury of Thought
Philosophical theories or ideas, as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might otherwise pass unregarded by us. "Philosophy is the microscope of thought." The theory or idea or system which requires of us the sacrifice of any part of this experience, in consideration of some interest into which we cannot enter, or some abstract theory we have not identified with ourselves, or what is only conventional, has no real claim upon us.
WALTER PATER
Conclusion, The Renaissance
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 JAY GOULD
"Evolution as Fact and Theory", Discover Magazine, May 1981
Material force can only be overthrown by material force, but theory itself becomes a material force when it has seized the masses. Theory is capable of seizing the masses when it demonstrates ad hominem, and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp things by the root. But for man the root is man himself.
KARL MARX
Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right
To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Rebel
You can never prove that a theory is correct -- you can only prove it wrong.
SALVATORE VITALE
"Physicists Just Spotted Gravitational Waves Again, So What's Next?", Gizmodo, June 3, 2017
The pull of conspiracy theories can be strong: when an unexpected and tragic event occurs, especially one that crosses lines most of us would have never imagined could be crossed, believing that someone, somewhere, is pulling the strings for some greater purpose (even a nefarious one) can bring some psychological relief. The world isn't random; instead, it's run by shadowy figures with their own best interests at heart.
JULIA EDDINGTON
"3 of the Most Compelling Car Conspiracy Theories", The Zebra, May 22, 2017
It is not enough for theory to describe and analyse, it must itself be an event in the universe it describes. In order to do this theory must partake of and become the acceleration of this logic. It must tear itself from all referents and take pride only in the future. Theory must operate on time at the cost of a deliberate distortion of present reality.
JEAN BAUDRILLARD
"Why Theory?", The Ecstasy of Communication
The field of experience is the whole universe in all directions. Theory remains shut up within the limits of human faculties.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
The world can doubtless never be well known by theory: practice is absolutely necessary; but surely it is of great use to a young man, before he sets out for that country, full of mazes, windings, and turnings, to have at least a general map of it, made by some experienced traveller.
LORD CHESTERFIELD
The Letters of the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son
Theory is the fruit of reflection.
GEORGE CRABB
English Synonyms Explained
A scientific theory is an accumulated body of knowledge constructed to describe specific natural phenomena, such as the force of gravity or biodiversity, that has been vetted by the scientific community. It is the best that we can come up with to make sense of nature at a given time.
MARCELO GLEISER
"Why Is 'Theory' Such A Confusing Word?", NPR, March 23, 2016
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
ALBERT EINSTEIN
Herbert Spencer lecture delivered at Oxford, June 10, 1933