Sue Young Homeopathy

Richard Feynman The Meaning of it All

This is a WONDERFUL BOOK about science as it should be.

I recommend everyone read this.

Chapter One
The Uncertainty of Science

“In talking about the impact if ideas in one field on ideas in another field, one is always apt to make a fool of oneself”.

“Is science of any value?” “To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.”

“But see that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.”
“And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.”
“The proteins of bacteria and the proteins of humans are the same. In fact it has recently been found that the protein making machinery in the bacteria can be given orders from the material from the red cells to produce red cell proteins. So close is life to life. The universality of the deep chemistry of living things is indeed a fantastic and beautiful thing.” “What looks still to our crude eyes is a wild and dynamic dance.” “And again, it has been discovered that all the world is made of the same atoms, that the stars are of the same stuff as ourselves.”

“Faraday suddenly found that two apparently different things were different aspects of the same thing.” (discussion about electricity and chemistry)

“Science is a method of finding things out. But if a thing is not scientific, if it cannot be subjected to the test of observation, this does not mean that it is dead, wrong or stupid. We are not trying to argue that science is somehow good and other things are somehow not good. But there are some things left out, for which the method does not work. This does not mean that those things are unimportant. They are, in fact, in many ways the most important.”

“There are in science a number of technical consequences that follow from the principle of observation as judge. For example, the observation cannot be rough.” “Another important characteristic of science is its objectivity. It is necessary to look at the results of observation objectively, because you, the experimenter, might like one result better than another.”

“In a different field perhaps it is not so important to be careful of the meaning of words or that the rules be specific… I do not know.” “So the next thing we have to talk about is where the new ideas come from. Actually, it does not make any difference as long as they come.” “There is no authority who decides what is a good idea. We have lost the need to go to an authority to find out whether an idea is true or not.”

“The relations among scientists were at first very argumentative… but today… scientific argument is likely to involve a great deal of laughter and uncertainty on both sides.” “And so if you get anything new from anyone, anywhere, you welcome it, and you do not argue about why the other person says it is so.”

“Most people find it surprising that in science there is no interest in the background of the author of an idea or in his motive for expounding it. You listen…”

The great difficulty is in trying to imagine something that you have never seen, that is consistent in every detail…” “Incidentally the fact that there are rules at all to be checked is a kind of miracle. It is not understood at all…” “…but it leads to the possibility of prediction.” “This science is not a specialist business; it is completely universal.”

“I come now to an important point. The old laws may be wrong.” “Why are physicists always having to change the laws? The answer is, first that the laws are not the observations and, second, that experiments are always inaccurate.” “So the laws are guessed…” “It would be unscientific not to guess.” “…there is no harm in being uncertain. It is better to say something and not be sure than not to say anything at all.” “It is necessary and true that all of the things we say in science, all of the conclusions, are uncertain, because they are only conclusions.”

“Scientists, therefore, are used to dealing with doubt and uncertainty. All scientific knowledge is uncertain.” “I believe that to solve any problem that has never been solved before, you have to leave the door to the unknown ajar. You have to permit the possibility that you do not have it exactly right. Otherwise, if you have made up your mind already, you might not solve it.” “The rate of the development of science is not the rate at which you make observations alone but, much more important, the rate at which you create new things to test.” “If we were not able or did not desire to look in any new direction, if we did not have a doubt or recognise ignorance, we would not get any new ideas. There would be nothing worth checking, because we would know what is true.” “Some people say, ‘How can you live without knowing?’ I do not know what they mean. I always live without knowing.”

“This freedom to doubt is an important matter…” “It was born of a struggle to be permitted to doubt, to be unsure. And I do not want us to forget the importance of the struggle and, by default, to let the thing fall away. I feel a responsibility as a scientist who knows the great value of a satisfactory philosophy of ignorance, and the progress made possible by such a philosophy, progress which is the fruit of the freedom of thought. I feel a responsibility to proclaim the value of this freedom and to teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.”

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Sue :: Jun.22.2007 :: Book Reviews :: No Comments »

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