On Physics (1950-1959)

"Physics is not about the real world, it is about ‘abstractions’ from the real world, and this is what makes it so scientific." (Anthony Standen, "Science is a Sacred Cow", 1950)

"Physics too deals with mathematical concepts; however, these concepts attain physical content only by the clear determination of their relation to the objects of experience." (Albert Einstein, "Out of My Later Years", 1950)

"The first thing to realize about physics […] is its extraordinary indirectness. […] For physics is not about the real world, it is about 'abstractions' from the real world, and this is what makes it so scientific. […] Theoretical physics runs merrily along with these unreal abstractions, but its conclusions are checked, at every possible point, by experiments." (Anthony Standen, "Science is a Sacred Cow", 1950)

"Common sense […] may be thought of as a series of concepts and conceptual schemes which have proved highly satisfactory for the practical uses of mankind. Some of those concepts and conceptual schemes were carried over into science with only a little pruning and whittling and for a long time proved useful. As the recent revolutions in physics indicate, however, many errors can be made by failure to examine carefully just how common sense ideas should be defined in terms of what the experimenter plans to do." (James B Conant, "Science and Common Sense", 1951)

"Automata have begun to invade certain parts of mathematics too, particularly but not exclusively mathematical physics or applied mathematics. The natural systems (e.g., central nervous system) are of enormous complexity and it is clearly necessary first to subdivide what they represent into several parts that to a certain extent are independent, elementary units. The problem then consists of understanding how these elements are organized as a whole. It is the latter problem which is likely to attract those who have the background and tastes of the mathematician or a logician. With this attitude, he will be inclined to forget the origins and then, after the process of axiomatization is complete, concentrate on the mathematical aspects." (John Von Neumann, "The General and Logical Theory of Automata", 1951)

"In the realm of physics it is perhaps only the theory of relativity which has made it quite clear that the two essences, space and time, entering into our intuition, have no place in the world constructed by mathematical physics. Colours are thus 'really' not even æther-vibrations, but merely a series of values of mathematical functions in which occur four independent parameters corresponding to the three dimensions of space, and the one of time." (Hermann Weyl, "Space, Time, Matter", 1952)

"As far as I can see, all a priori statements in physics have their origin in symmetry." (Hermann Weyl, "Symmetry", 1952)

"All great discoveries in experimental physics have been due to the intuition of men who made free use of models, which were for them not products of the imagination, but representatives of real things." (Max Born, "Physical Reality", Philosophical Quarterly Vol. (11), 1953)

"It is not only the smallest features of the Universe that are controlled by the laws of physics. The behavior of matter on the very large scale that concerns us in astronomy is also determined by physics. The heavenly bodies dance like puppets on strings. If we are to understand why they dance as they do, it is necessary to find out how the strings are manipulated." (Fred Hoyle, "Frontiers of Astronomy", 1955)

"The time has come to realise that an interpretation of the universe - even a positive one - remains unsatisfying unless it covers the interior as well as the exterior of things; mind as well as matter. The true physics is that which will, one day, achieve the inclusion of man in his wholeness in a coherent picture of the world." (Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, "Le phénomène humain" ["The Phenomenon of Man"], 1955)

"Physics is in the nature of the case indeterminate, and therefore the affair of statistics." (Max Born, "Atomic Physics", 1957)

"The ultimate origin of the difficulty lies in the fact (or philosophical principle) that we are compelled to use the words of common language when we wish to describe a phenomenon, not by logical or mathematical analysis, but by a picture appealing to the imagination. Common language has grown by everyday experience and can never surpass these limits. Classical physics has restricted itself to the use of concepts of this kind; by analysing visible motions it has developed two ways of representing them by elementary processes; moving particles and waves. There is no other way of giving a pictorial description of motions - we have to apply it even in the region of atomic processes, where classical physics breaks down." (Max Born, "Atomic Physics", 1957)

"[...] in quantum mechanics, we are not dealing with an arbitrary renunciation of a more detailed analysis of atomic phenomena, but with a recognition that such an analysis is to principle excluded." (Niels Bohr, "Atomic Theory and Human Knowledge", 1958)