"A schema is a configuration within the brain, either inborn or learned, against which the input of the nerve cells is compared. [...] the conscious mind [...] can fill in details that are missing from the actual sensory input and create a pattern in the mind which is not necessarily present in reality. In this way, the gestalt of objects - the impression [...] - is aided by the taxonomic powers of the schemata." (Edward O Wilson, "On Human Nature", 1978)
"Because of mathematical indeterminancy and the uncertainty principle, it may be a law of nature that no nervous system is capable of acquiring enough knowledge to significantly predict the future of any other intelligent system in detail. Nor can intelligent minds gain enough self-knowledge to know their own future, capture fate, and in this sense eliminate free will." (Edward O Wilson, "On Human Nature", 1978)
"Cultural change is the statistical product of the separate behavioral responses of large numbers of human beings who cope as best they can with social existence." (Edward O Wilson, "On Human Nature", 1978)
"Important science is not just any similarity glimpsed for the first time. It offers analogues that map the gateways to unexplored terrain." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)
"Our sense of wonder grows exponentially: the greater the knowledge, the deeper the mystery and the more we seek knowledge to create new mystery." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)
"Scientists do not discover in order to know, they know in order to discover." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)
"Common sense is merely unaided intuition, and unaided intuition is reasoning performed in the absence of instruments and the tested knowledge of science." (Edward O Wilson, "The Diversity of Life", 1992)
"Theoretical scientists, inching away from the safe and known, skirting the point of no return, confront nature with a free invention of the intellect. They strip the discovery down and wire it into place in the form of mathematical models or other abstractions that define the perceived relation exactly. The now-naked idea is scrutinized with as much coldness and outward lack of pity as the naturally warm human heart can muster. They try to put it to use, devising experiments or field observations to test its claims. By the rules of scientific procedure it is then either discarded or temporarily sustained. Either way, the central theory encompassing it grows. If the abstractions survive they generate new knowledge from which further exploratory trips of the mind can be planned. Through the repeated alternation between flights of the imagination and the accretion of hard data, a mutual agreement on the workings of the world is written, in the form of natural law." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)]
"New knowledge is not science until it is made social. The scientific culture can be defined as new verifiable knowledge secured and distributed with fair credit meticulously given." (Edward O Wilson, "Naturalist", 1994)
"Theoretical scientists, inching away from the safe and known, skirting the point of no return, confront nature with a free invention of the intellect. They strip the discovery down and wire it into place in the form of mathematical models or other abstractions that define the perceived relation exactly. The now-naked idea is scrutinized with as much coldness and outward lack of pity as the naturally warm human heart can muster. They try to put it to use, devising experiments or field observations to test its claims. By the rules of scientific procedure it is then either discarded or temporarily sustained. Either way, the central theory encompassing it grows. If the abstractions survive they generate new knowledge from which further exploratory trips of the mind can be planned. Through the repeated alternation between flights of the imagination and the accretion of hard data, a mutual agreement on the workings of the world is written, in the form of natural law." (Edward O Wilson, "Biophilia", 1984)]
"The laws of biology are written in the language of diversity." (Edward O Wilson, "In Search of Nature", 1996)
"The role of science, like that of art, is to blend proximate imagery with more distant meaning, the parts we already understand with those given as new into larger patterns that are coherent enough to be acceptable as truth. Biologists know this relation by intuition during the course of fieldwork, as they struggle to make order out of the infinitely varying patterns of nature." (Edward O Wilson, "In Search of Nature", 1996)
"The role of science, like that of art, is to blend proximate imagery with more distant meaning, the parts we already understand with those given as new into larger patterns that are coherent enough to be acceptable as truth. Biologists know this relation by intuition during the course of fieldwork, as they struggle to make order out of the infinitely varying patterns of nature." (Edward O Wilson, "In Search of Nature", 1996)
"[…] all tangible phenomena, from the birth of stars to the workings of social institutions, are based on material processes that are ultimately reducible, however long and tortuous the sequences, to the laws of physics." (Edward O Wilson, "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge", 1998)
"[...] the definitive property of good theory is predictiveness. Those theories endure that are precise in the predictions they make across many phenomena and whose predictions are easiest to test by observation and experiment." (Edward O Wilson, "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge", 1998)
"We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely." (Edward O Wilson, "Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge", 1998)
"To know how scientists engage in visual imagery is to understand how they think creatively." (Edward O Wilson, "Letters to a Young Scientist", 2013)
"To know how scientists engage in visual imagery is to understand how they think creatively." (Edward O Wilson, "Letters to a Young Scientist", 2013)
"To search for unasked questions, plus questions to put to already acquired but unsought answers, it is vital to give full play to the imagination. That is the way to create truly original science." (Edward O Wilson, "Letters to a Young Scientist", 2013)
No comments:
Post a Comment