„We must never forget that it is principles, not phenomena, — laws not insulated independent facts, — which are the objects of inquiry to the natural philosopher.“
A Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy (1831)
Contesto: We must never forget that it is principles, not phenomena, — laws not insulated independent facts, — which are the objects of inquiry to the natural philosopher. As truth is single, and consistent with itself, a principle may be as completely and as plainly elucidated by the most familiar and simple fact, as by the most imposing and uncommon phenomenon. The colours which glitter on a soapbubble are the immediate consequence of a principle the most important, from the variety of phenomena it explains, and the most beautiful, from its simplicity and compendious neatness, in the whole science of optics. If the nature of periodical colours can be made intelligible by the contemplation of such a trivial object, from that moment it becomes a noble instrument in the eye of correct judgment; and to blow a large, regular, and durable soap-bubble may become the serious and praise-worthy endeavour of a sage, while children stand round and scoff, or children of a larger growth hold up their hands in astonishment at such waste of time and trouble. To the natural philosopher there is no natural object unimportant or trifling. From the least of nature's works he may learn the greatest lessons. The fall of an apple to the ground may raise his thoughts to the laws which govern the revolutions of the planets in their orbits; or the situation of a pebble may afford him evidence of the state of the globe he inhabits, myriads of ages ago, before his species became its denizens.
And this, is, in fact, one of the great sources of delight which the study of natural science imparts to its votaries. A mind which has once imbibed a taste for scientific inquiry, and has learnt the habit of applying its principles readily to the cases which occur, has within itself an inexhaustible source of pure and exciting contemplations. One would think that Shakspeare had such a mind in view when he describes a contemplative man as finding
John Herschel
astronomo, matematico e chimico britannico 1792 - 1871Citazioni simili
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), History
— Anthony Kennedy Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1936
Quoted in [Richard C. Reuben, Man in the Middle, California Lawyer, October 1992, 35]
— William John Macquorn Rankine civil engineer 1820 - 1872
Origine: "Outlines of the Science of Energetics," (1855), p. 121; Lead paragraph: Section "What Constitutes A Physical Theory"
— John Constable English Romantic painter 1776 - 1837
Quote from 'The History of Landscape Painting,' fourth lecture, Royal Institution (16 June 1836), from John Constable's Discourses, ed. R.B. Beckett, (Ipswich, Suffolk Records Society, 1970), p. 69.
1830s, his lectures History of Landscape Painting (1836)
— Annie Besant British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator 1847 - 1933
Origine: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man (1923)
— Marcel Proust, libro Alla ricerca del tempo perduto
In Search of Lost Time, Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), Vol II: Within a Budding Grove (1919)
„I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena.“
— Edgard Varèse French composer 1883 - 1965
Interview with Gunther Schuller (1965, p. 34), quoted in Sound Structure in Music (1975) bu Robert Erickson; University of California Press. .
Contesto: I was not influenced by composers as much as by natural objects and physical phenomena. As a child, I was tremendously impressed by the qualities and character of the granite I found in Burgundy, where I often visited my grandfather... So I was always in touch with things of stone and with this kind of pure structural architecture — without frills or unnecessary decoration. All of this became an integral part of my thinking at a very early stage.
— Thaddus E. Weckowicz Canadian psychologist 1919 - 2000
Origine: Ludwig von Bertalanffy (1901-1972) (1989), p. 3
— Dugald Stewart Scottish philosopher and mathematician 1753 - 1828
Origine: Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 1792, p. 12
— Immanuel Kant German philosopher 1724 - 1804
Kant's Inaugural Dissertation (1770), Section V On The Method Respecting The Sensuous And The Intellectual In Metaphysics
— William Crookes British chemist and physicist 1832 - 1919
Address to the Society for Psychical Research (1897)
Contesto: It can scarcely be denied that the fundamental phenomena which first led mankind into chemical inquiries are those of combustion. But, as we have just seen, minimized beings would be unable to produce fire at will, except by certain chemical reactions, and would have little opportunity of examining its nature. They might occasionally witness forest fires, volcanic eruptions, etc.; but such grand and catastrophic phenomena, though serving to reveal to our supposed Lilliputians the existence of combustion, would be ill suited for quiet investigation into its conditions and products. Moreover, considering the impossibility they would experience of pouring water from one test tube to another, the ordinary operations of analytical chemistry and of all manipulations depending on the use of the pneumatic trough would remain forever a sealed book.
— Tommy Douglas Scottish-born Canadian politician 1904 - 1986
Address, Provincial Convention, July 16, 1952.
— William Stanley Jevons English economist and logician 1835 - 1882
Introduction, Lesson I: Definition and Sphere of the Science.
Elementary Lessons on Logic (1870)
— Charles Babbage, Passages from the life of a philosopher
"Passages from the life of a philosopher", Appendix, p. 488
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)
„We are ignorant of the laws of variety-production; but we see it going on as a principle in nature“
— Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802), libro Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
Origine: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844), p. 283
Contesto: We are ignorant of the laws of variety-production; but we see it going on as a principle in nature, and it is obviously favorable to the supposition that all the great families of men are of one stock.
