Day 40

Einstein , A. (1879-1955)

Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world; all knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. Propositions arrived at by purely logical means are completely empty as regards reality. Because Galileo saw this, and particularly because he drummed it into the scientific world, he is the father of modern physics ... indeed the father of modern science altogether.

‘On the method of theoretical physics’ The Herbert Spencer Lecture delivered at Oxford, June 10, 1933. Published in Mein Weltbild (Amsterdam, Querido Verla, 1934) and in Ideas and Opinions (Bonanza Books, New York, MCMLIV) p. 270.

Day 39

Einstein, A. (1879-1955)

Experiment alone can decide on truth but the axiomatic basis of physics cannot be extracted from experiment.

Herbert Spencer Lecture, June 1933, cited by A. Salam in ‘The nature of the ultimate explanation in physics’ in Scientific Explanation edited by A. F. Heath (O.U.P., 1981) p. 28.

Day 38

Einstein, A. (1879-1955)

The object of all science, whether natural science or psychology, is to co-ordinate our experiences into a logical system.

The Meaning of Relativity (1922) (Chapman & Hall, London, 1978) p. 1

Day 37

Anonymous

A logician was asked why he did not believe in astrology. ‘I am an Aries’, he replied ‘and Aries never believe in astrology.’

Day 36

Einstein, A. (1879-1955)

There is no inductive method which could lead to the fundamental concepts of physics. Failure to understand this fact constituted the basic philosophical error of many investigations of the nineteenth century. It was probably the reason why the molecular theory and Maxwell’s theory were able to establish themselves only at a relatively late date. Logical thinking is necessarily deductive; it is based on hypothetical concepts and axioms. How can we hope to choose the latter in such a manner as to justify us in expecting success as a consequence?

‘Physics and Reality’ Journal of the Franklin Institute 221 (1936) reprinted in Out of my later years (Philosophical Library, New York, 1950) p. 78.

Day 35

Born, M.

I believe that there is no philosophical high-road in science with epistemological sign-posts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. We do not find sign-posts at cross-roads, but our own scouts erect them to help the rest.

Attributed by H. Margenau in The Nature of Physical Reality (McGraw-Hill, 1950) p. 99.

Day 34

Eccles, J.C.

Because of the mystery of our being as unique self-conscious existences, we can have hope as we set our own soft sensitive and fleeting personal experience against the terror and immensity of illimitable space and time. Are we not participants in the meaning where there is else no meaning? Do we not experience and delight in fellowship, joy, harmony, truth, love and beauty where else there is only the mindless universe?

Facing Reality: Philosophical Adventures of a Brain Scientist (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1970) and repeated in The Understanding of the Brain (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1977) p. 228.

Day 33

Einstein, A. (1879-1955)

Of all the communities available to us, there is not one I would want to devote myself to, except for the society of true searchers which has very few living members at any time.

Letter to Max Born, April 29, 1924 cited in The Born-Einstein Letters by M. Born (Walker, New York, 1971) cited in Nature 278 (1979).

Day 32

Russell, B. (1872-1970)

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

Problems of Philosophy Chapter 1 Appearance and Reality

Day 31

Time: The successive states of the universe regarded as a whole whose every part or moment is before or after every other & position in which is defined in answer to the question ‘when?’; ...

Pocket Oxford Dictionary, 1934.

Day 29

Newton, I. (1642-1727)

Absolute true and mathematical time flows equably without relation to anything external ... relative, apparent and common time is some sensible and external measure of duration. Absolute space ... without relation to anything external remains always similar and immovable. Relative space is some moveable measure of the absolute spaces.

Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1687) translated by F. Cajori, (University of California Press, 1947) cited by S. Sambursky in Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physi­cists (Hutchinson, London, 1974) p. 300.

Day 28

Rhazes (Abu Bakr al-Razi) (C.864—925)

Absolute time is duration, eternity. It is eternal. It is moving perpetually. Restricted time is that which results from the motion of the spheres and the course of the sun and the stars. ... Absolute place is like a vessel containing bodies. When you eliminate the bodies from thought, the vessel does not vanish. ... but relative place is relative to that which occupies it. And when there is nothing which occupies, there is no place.

Opera philosophica, edited by P. Kraus (Cairo 1939), translated by M. Schwarz and cited by S. Sam­bursky in Physical Thought from the Presocratics to the Quantum Physicists (Hutchinson, London, 1974) pp. 128,131.

Day 27

da Vinci, L. (1452—1519)

In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes: so with time present.

Practical Cogitator

Day 26

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes, Verse 3.