On Form (1950-1959)

"A fundamental value in the scientific outlook is concern with the best available map of reality. The scientist will always seek a description of events which enables him to predict most by assuming least. He thus already prefers a particular form of behavior. If moralities are systems of preferences, here is at least one point at which science cannot be said to be completely without preferences. Science prefers good maps." (Anatol Rapoport, "Science and the goals of man: a study in semantic orientation", 1950)

"Equilibrium requires that the whole of the structure, the form of its elements, and the means of interconnection be so combined that at the supports there will automatically be produced passive forces or reactions that are able to balance the forces acting upon the structures, including the force of its own weight." (Eduardo Torroja, "Philosophy of Structure", 1951)

"The enthusiastic use of statistics to prove one side of a case is not open to criticism providing the work is honestly and accurately done, and providing the conclusions are not broader than indicated by the data. This type of work must not be confused with the unfair and dishonest use of both accurate and inaccurate data, which too commonly occurs in business. Dishonest statistical work usually takes the form of: (1) deliberate misinterpretation of data; (2) intentional making of overestimates or underestimates; and (3) biasing results by using partial data, making biased surveys, or using wrong statistical methods." (John R Riggleman & Ira N Frisbee, "Business Statistics", 1951)

"The harmony of the world is made manifest in Form and Number, and the heart and soul and all the poetry of Natural Philosophy are embodied in the concept of mathematical beauty." (Sir D’Arcy W Thompson,"On Growth and Form", 1951)

"In a sense, of course, probability theory in the form of the simple laws of chance is the key to the analysis of warfare; […] My own experience of actual operational research work, has however, shown that its is generally possible to avoid using anything more sophisticated. […] In fact the wise operational research worker attempts to concentrate his efforts in finding results which are so obvious as not to need elaborate statistical methods to demonstrate their truth. In this sense advanced probability theory is something one has to know about in order to avoid having to use it. (Patrick M S Blackett, "Operations Research", Physics Today, 1951)

"The concept of an average, the equation to a curve, the description of a froth or cellular tissue, all come within the scope of mathematics for no other reason than that they are summations of more elementary principles or phenomena. Growth and Form are throughout of this composite nature; therefore the laws of mathematics are bound to underlie them, and her methods to be peculiarly fitted to interpret them. (D'Arcy W Thompson, "On Growth and Form", 1951)

"The older physicist believed in Nature and thought of himself as making experiments to see what She was like. She was there whether he could observe her or not. But the modern physicist thinks first of all of what he observes in his experiments and is not interested in anything that he cannot possibly observe. He looks for relations between his observations and ignores everything else. But he still expresses his results as though they were discoveries of the essence of Nature, because he is so used to this way of speaking that he does not realise that his discoveries no longer conform to it. When they are expressed as the characteristics of a world existing outside us and independently of us, which causes our experience by its impact on our sense organs, these discoveries require such a world to have contradictory properties. Hence, by retaining this form of expression, the physicist finds himself presenting his perfectly rational achievements as though they were nonsensical. (Herbert Dingle, "The Scientific Adventure", British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1952)

"There are at least four fundamental purposes that the study of mathematics should attain. First, it should serve as a functional tool in solving our individual everyday problems. These questions: How much? How many? What form or shape? and Can you prove it? arise every day in the lives of every citizen. (Howard F Fehr, "Reorientation in Mathematics Education", Teachers Record 54, 1953)

"The laws of science are the permanent contribution to knowledge - the individual pieces which are fitted together attempt to form a picture of the physical universe in action." (Edwin P Hubble, "The Nature of Science and Other Lectures", 1954)

"Mathematics in this sense is a form of poetry, which has the same relation to the prose of practical mathematics as poetry has to prose in any other language. The element of poetry, the delight of exploring the medium for its own sake, is an essential ingredient in the creative process." (Jacob Bronowski, "Science and Human Values", 1956)

"The problem of the transformation of images is of great importance in the theory of economic development. […] The problem here is that of the initiation and imitation of superior processes. Both these phenomena require transformation of the image; a new process always starts as a new image, as a new idea. The process itself is merely a form of transcription of the new image." (Kenneth E Boulding, "The Image: Knowledge in life and society", 1956)

"Whether our work is art or science or the daily work of society, it is only the form in which we explore our experience which is different." (Jacob Bronowski, "Science and Human Values", 1956)

"As a simple trick, the discrete can often be carried over into the continuous, in a way suitable for practical purposes, by making a graph of the discrete, with the values shown as separate points. It is then easy to see the form that the changes will take if the points were to become infinitely numerous and close together." (W Ross Ashby, "An Introduction to Cybernetics", 1956)

"The most fundamental concept in cybernetics is that of ‘difference’, either that two things are recognisably different or that one thing has changed with time. Its range of application need not be described now, for the subsequent chapters will illustrate the range abundantly. All the changes that may occur with time are naturally included, for when plants grow and planets age and machines move some change from one state to another is implicit. So our first task will be to develop this concept of change", not only making it more precise but making it richer, converting it to a form that experience has shown to be necessary if significant developments are to be made." (W Ross Ashby, "An Introduction to Cybernetics", 1956)

"We look upon economic theory as a sequence of conceptual models that seek to express in simplified form different aspects of an always more complicated reality. (Tjalling Koopmans, "Three Essays", 1957)

"We should admit in theory what is already very largely a case in practice, that the main currency of scientific information is the secondary sources in the form of abstracts, reports, tables, etc., and that the primary sources are only for detailed reference by very few people. It is possible that the fate of most scientific papers will be not to be read by anyone who uses them, but with luck they will furnish an item, a number, some facts or data to such reports which may, but usually will not, lead to the original paper being consulted. This is very sad but it is the inevitable consequence of the growth of science." (John D Bernal, "The Supply of Information to the Scientist: Some Problems of the Present Day", Journal of Documentation Vol. 13, 1957)

"There is beauty in discovery. There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. Attempts to place different disciplines in different camps are revealed as artificial in the face of the unity of knowledge. All illiterate men are sustained by the philosopher, the historian, the political analyst, the economist, the scientist, the poet, the artisan, and the musician." (Glenn T Seaborg, 1958)

"The study of thinking machines teaches us more about the brain than we can learn by introspective methods. Western man is externalizing himself in the form of gadgets." (William S Burroughs, "Naked Lunch Benway Naked Lunch", 1959)