"The concepts which now prove to be fundamental to our understanding of nature- a space which is finite; a space which is empty, so that one point [of our 'material' world] differs from another solely in the properties of space itself; four-dimensional, seven- and more dimensional spaces; a space which for ever expands; a sequence of events which follows the laws of probability instead of the law of causation - or alternatively, a sequence of events which can only be fully and consistently described by going outside of space and time - all these concepts seem to my mind to be structures of pure thought, incapable of realisation in any sense which would properly be described as material." (James Jeans, "The Mysterious Universe", 1930)
"The final truth about phenomena resides in the mathematical
description of it; so long as there is no imperfection in this, our knowledge
is complete. We go beyond the mathematical formula at our own risk; we may find
a [nonmathematical] model or picture that helps us to understand it, but we
have no right to expect this, and our failure to find such a model or picture
need not indicate that either our reasoning or our knowledge is at fault." (James Jeans, "The Mysterious Universe", 1930)
"Today there is a wide measure of agreement, which on the
physical side of science approaches almost to unanimity, that the stream of
knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to
look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer
appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter; we are beginning to
suspect that we ought rather to hail it as a creator and governor of the realm
of matter [...]"
"The essential fact is simply that all the pictures which science now draws of nature, and which alone seem capable of according with observational fact, are mathematical pictures." (James H Jeans, "The Mysterious Universe", 1930)
"The making of models or pictures to explain mathematical formulae and the phenomena they describe is not a step towards, but a step away from reality; it is like making graven images of a spirit." (James H Jeans, "The Mysterious Universe", 1930)
"[…] our knowledge of the external world must always consist of numbers, and our picture of the universe - the synthesis of our knowledge - must necessarily be mathematical in form. All the concrete details of the picture, the apples, the pears and bananas, the ether and atoms and electrons, are mere clothing that we ourselves drape over our mathematical symbols - they do not belong to Nature, but to the parables by which we try to make Nature comprehensible." (James H Jeans, "The New World-Picture of Modern Physics", Supplement to Nature Vol. 134 (3384), 1934)
“A science which confines itself to correlating the phenomena can never learn anything about the reality underlying the phenomena, while a science which goes further than this, and introduces hypotheses about reality can never acquire certain knowledge of a positive kind about reality […]” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Exhaustive studies by many investigators have shown that the fundamental laws of nature do not control the phenomena directly. We must picture them as operating in a substratum of which we can form no mental picture unless we are willing to introduce a number of irrelevant and therefore unjustifiable suppositions.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“In time they [physicists] hoped to devise a model which would reproduce all the phenomena of physics, and so make it possible to predict them all. […] To-day we not only have no perfect model, but we know that it is of no use to search for one - it could have no intelligible meaning for us. For we have found out that nature does not function in a way that can be made comprehensible to the human mind through models or pictures. […] Although we can never devise a pictorial representation which shall be both true to nature and intelligible to our minds, we may still be able to make partial aspects of the truth comprehensible through pictorial representations or parables. As the whole truth does not admit of intelligible representation, every such pictorial representation or parable must fail somewhere. The physicist of the last generation was continually making pictorial representations and parables, and also making the mistake of treating the half-truths of pictorial representations and parables as literal truths.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“It was supposed that a model which reproduced all the phenomena of a science, and so made it possible to predict them all, must in some way correspond to the reality underlying the phenomena. But obviously this cannot be so. After one perfect model had been found, a second of equal perfection might appear, and as both models could not correspond to reality, we should have at least one perfect model which did not correspond to reality. Thus we could never be sure that any model corresponded to reality. In brief, we can never have certain knowledge as to the nature of reality.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“[…] many philosophers have found it difficult to accept the hypothesis that an object is just about what it appears to be, and so is like the mental picture it produces in our minds. For an object and a mental picture are of entirely different natures - a brick and the mental picture of a brick can at best no more resemble one another than an orchestra and a symphony. In any case, there is no compelling reason why phenomena - the mental visions that a mind constructs out of electric currents in a brain - should resemble the objects that produced these currents in the first instance.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Nothing is left in the world but happenings for which no explanation or interpretation is offered or even attempted, and science has now for its single aim the discovery of the laws to which these happenings conform - the pattern of events.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Physicists who are trying to understand nature may work in many different fields and by many different methods; one may dig, one may sow, one may reap. But the final harvest will always be a sheaf of mathematical formulae. These will never describe nature itself, hut only our observations on nature. Our studies can never put us into contact with reality; we can never penetrate beyond the impressions that reality implants in our minds.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
"[…] physics tries to discover the pattern of events which controls the phenomena we observe. But we can never know what this pattern means or how it originates; and even if some superior intelligence were to tell us, we should find the explanation unintelligible. Our studies can never put us into contact with reality, and its true meaning and nature must be for ever hidden from us." (James H Jeans, "Physics and Philosophy" 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Science usually advances by a succession of small steps, through a fog in which even the most keen-sighted explorer can seldom see more than a few paces ahead. Occasionally the fog lifts, an eminence is gained, and a wider stretch of territory can be surveyed - sometimes with startling results. A whole science may then seem to undergo a kaleidoscopic ‘rearrangement’, fragments of knowledge being found to fit together in a hitherto unsuspected manner. Sometimes the shock of readjustment may spread to other sciences; sometimes it may divert the whole current of human thought.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“The pictures we draw of nature show similar limitations; these are the price we pay for limiting our pictures of nature to the kinds that can be understood by our minds. As we cannot draw one perfect picture, we make two imperfect pictures and turn to one or the other according as we want one property or another to be accurately delineated. Our observations tell us which is the right picture to use for each particular purpose […] . Yet some properties of nature are so far-reaching and general that neither picture can depict them properly of itself. In such cases we must appeal to both pictures, and these sometimes give us different and inconsistent information. Where, then, shall we find the truth?” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Those who are content with a positivist conception of the aims of science will feel that he is in an entirely satisfactory position; he has discovered the pattern of events, and so can predict accurately; what more can he want? A mental picture would be an added luxury, but also a useless luxury. For if the picture did not bear any resemblance at all to the reality it would be valueless, and if it did it would be unintelligible […]” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“When two hypotheses are possible, we provisionally choose that which our minds adjudge to the simpler on the supposition that this Is the more likely to lead in the direction of the truth.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Whenever a man increases the content of his mind he gains new knowledge, and this occurs each time a new relation is established between the worlds on the two sides of the sense-organs - the world of ideas in an individual mind, and the world of objects existing outside individual minds which is common to us all.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
“Yet a review of receipt physics has shown that all attempts at mechanical models or pictures have failed and must fail. For a mechanical model or picture must represent things as happening in space and time, while it has recently become clear that the ultimate processes of nature neither occur in, nor admit of representation in, space and time. Thus an understanding of the ultimate processes of nature is for ever beyond our reach: we shall never be able - even in imagination - to open the case of our watch and see how the wheels go round. The true object of scientific study can never be the realities of nature, but only our own observations on nature.” (James H Jeans, “Physics and Philosophy” 3rd Ed., 1943)
"All the pictures which science draws of Nature, and which alone seem capable of according with observational facts, are mathematical pictures." (Sir James Jeans)
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