James B Conant - Collected Quotes

"A useful concept may be a barrier to the acceptance of a better one if long-entrenched in the minds of scientists." (James B Conant, "On Understanding Science", 1947)

"Experimental discoveries must fit the time; facts may be at hand for years without their significance being realized; the total scientific situation must be favorable for the acceptance of new views." (James B Conant, "On Understanding Science", 1947)

"We can put it down as one of the principles learned from the history of science that a theory is only overthrown by a better theory, never merely by contradictory facts." (James B Conant, "On Understanding Science", 1947)

"A conceptual scheme is never discarded merely because of a few stubborn facts with which it cannot be reconciled; a conceptual scheme is either modified or replaced by a better one, never abandoned with nothing left to take its place." (James B Conant, "Science and Common Sense", 1951)

"Mathematics and measurement are not to be unduly worshipped, nor can they be neglected by even the lay observer." (James B Conant, "Science and Common Sense", 1951)

"Science is an interconnected series of concepts and schemes that have developed as a result of experimentation and observation and are fruitful of further experimentation and observation."(James B Conant, "Science and Common Sense", 1951)

"Science is a dynamic undertaking directed to lowering the degree of the empiricism involved in solving problems." (James B Conant, "Modern Science and Modern Man", 1952)