On Measurement (1950-1959)

"Every bit of knowledge we gain and every conclusion we draw about the universe or about any part or feature of it depends finally upon some observation or measurement. Mankind has had again and again the humiliating experience of trusting to intuitive, apparently logical conclusions without observations, and has seen Nature sail by in her radiant chariot of gold in an entirely different direction." (Oliver J Lee, "Measuring Our Universe: From the Inner Atom to Outer Space", 1950)

"If the idols of scientists were piled on top of one another in the manner of a totem pole the topmost would be a grinning fetish called Measurement." (Anthony Standen, "Science Is a Sacred Cow", 1950)

"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)

"The usefulness of observation and measurement in testing economic theories arises because the theorems of economics are supposed to relate to the actual world. [...] Any economic theorem rigorously deduced from given postulates may be regarded as a hypothesis about the actual world which experience may show to be false." (Richard Stone, "The Role of Measurement in Economics", 1951)

"In so far as engineers deal with facts that can be measured they use mathematics to combine these facts an dto deduce their conclusions. But often the facts are no subject to exact measurement or else the combinations are of facts that are incommensurable." (Hardy Cross, "Engineers and Ivory Towers", 1952)

"Statistics is the fundamental and most important part of inductive logic. It is both an art and a science, and it deals with the collection, the tabulation, the analysis and interpretation of quantitative and qualitative measurements. It is concerned with the classifying and determining of actual attributes as well as the making of estimates and the testing of various hypotheses by which probable, or expected, values are obtained. It is one of the means of carrying on scientific research in order to ascertain the laws of behavior of things - be they animate or inanimate. Statistics is the technique of the Scientific Method." (Bruce D Greenschields & Frank M Weida, "Statistics with Applications to Highway Traffic Analyses", 1952)

"The principle of complementarity states that no single model is possible which could provide a precise and rational analysis of the connections between these phenomena [before and after measurement]. In such a case, we are not supposed, for example, to attempt to describe in detail how future phenomena arise out of past phenomena. Instead, we should simply accept without further analysis the fact that future phenomena do in fact somehow manage to be produced, in a way that is, however, necessarily beyond the possibility of a detailed description. The only aim of a mathematical theory is then to predict the statistical relations, if any, connecting the phenomena." (David Bohm, "A Suggested Interpretation of the Quantum Theory in Terms of ‘Hidden’ Variables", 1952)

"Let us keep the discoveries and indisputable measurements of physics. […] A more complete study of the movements of the world will oblige us, little by little, to turn it upside down; in other words, to discover that if things hold and hold together, it is only by reason of complexity, from above." (Pierre T de Chardin, "The Phenomenon of Man", 1955)

"Science cannot be equated to measurement, although many contemporary scientists behave as though it can. For example, the editorial policies of many scientific journals support the publication of data and exclude the communication of ideas." (Dwight J Ingle, "Principles of Research in Biology and Medicine", 1958)

"We are committed to the scientific method, and measurement is the foundation of that method; hence we are prone to assume that whatever is measurable must be significant and that whatever cannot be measured may as well be disregarded." (Joseph W Krutch, "Human Nature and the Human Condition", 1959)