Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Truth

the test of scientific truth is patient collection of facts, combined with bold guessing as to laws binding the facts together.

Russel on the great merits of Copernicus's New Astronomy

2 comments:

Stuart said...

its a nice quote.

One of my favourites goes something like, "Science is built with facts like a house is out of bricks, but to call a collection of facts, science is to call a pile of bricks, a house"

Trevor Black said...

I saw that on your facebook...

I like the bit about boldness.

Most of the philosophers seem to be proved idiots in some of their theories at a later stage, but that doesn't stop them.

I liked your analogy of kids playing computer games, and being prepared to fail many times till they advance a level...

Bold...

and when they play a previous level, it seems so easy.