"All our thinking is performed upon signs of some kind or other, either imagined or actually perceived. The best thinking, especially on mathematical subjects, is done by experimenting in the imagination upon a diagram or other scheme, and it facilitates the thought to have it before one’s eyes." (Charles S Peirce, “The Principles of Mathematics”, cca. 1902)
"The laws of thermodynamics, as empirically determined, express the approximate and probable behavior of systems of a great number of particles, or, more precisely, they express the laws of mechanics for such systems as they appear to beings who have not the fineness of perception to enable them to appreciate quantities of the order of magnitude of those which relate to single particles, and who cannot repeat their experiments often enough to obtain any but the most probable results." (Josiah W Gibbs, "Elementary Principles in Statistical Mechanics", 1902)
"The most ordinary things are to philosophy a source of insoluble puzzles. In order to explain our perceptions it constructs the concept of matter and then finds matter quite useless either for itself having or for causing perceptions in a mind. With infinite ingenuity it constructs a concept of space or time and then finds it absolutely impossible that there be objects in this space or that processes occur during this time [...] The source of this kind of logic lies in excessive confidence in the so-called laws of thought." (Ludwig E Boltzmann, "On Statistical Mechanics", 1904)
"Synergy is the principle that explains all organization and creates all structures. The products of cosmic synergy are found in all fields of phenomena. Celestial structures are worlds and world systems; chemical structures are atoms, molecules, and substances; biotic structures are protoplasm, cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. There are also psychic structures - feelings, emotions, passions, volitions, perceptions, cognitions, memory, imagination, reason, thought, and all the acts of consciousness. And then there are social structures […]. These are the products of the social forces acting under the principle of social synergy." (James Q Dealey & Lester F Ward, "A Text-book of Sociology", 1905)
"To know each other we must reach beyond the sphere of our sense perceptions." (Nikola Tesla, "Electrical World and Engineer", 1905)
"Let us look for a moment at the general significance of the fact that calculating machines actually exist, which relieve mathematicians of the purely mechanical part of numerical computations, and which accomplish the work more quickly and with a greater degree of accuracy; for the machine is not subject to the slips of the human calculator. The existence of such a machine proves that computation is not concerned with the significance of numbers, but that it is concerned essentially only with the formal laws of operation; for it is only these that the machine can obey - having been thus constructed - an intuitive perception of the significance of numbers being out of the question." (Felix Klein, "Elementarmathematik vom hoheren Standpunkte aus", 1908)
"The objects of our perception invariably include places and times in combination. Nobody has ever noticed a place except at a time, or a time except at a place. But I still respect the dogma that both space and time have independent significance. A point of space at a point of time, that is a system of values x, y, z, t, I will call a world-point." (Hermann Minkowski, "Space and Time", [Address to the 80th Assembly of German Natural Scientists and Physicians] 1908)
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