William Whewell Quotes - Page 2

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• Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.

  William Whewell

  Past, Differences, Cases

  William Whewell (1968). “Theory of Scientific Method”, p.151, Hackett Publishing

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• The present generation finds itself the heir of a vast patrimony of science; and it must needs concern us to know the steps by which these possessions were acquired, and the documents by which they are secured to us and our heirs for ever.

  William Whewell

  Needs, Generations, Heirs

  William Whewell (1857). “History of the Inductive Sciences from the Earliest to the Present Time”, p.3

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• Nobody since Newton has been able to use geometrical methods to the same extent for the like purposes; and as we read the Principia we feel as when we are in an ancient armoury where the weapons are of gigantic size; and as we look at them we marvel what manner of man he was who could use as a weapon what we can scarcely lift as a burden.

  William Whewell

  Men, Looks, Purpose

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• The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.

  William Whewell

  Real, Acceptance, Science

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• The object of science is knowledge; the objects of art are works. In art, truth is the means to an end; in science, it is the only end. Hence the practical arts are not to be classed among the sciences

  William Whewell

  Art, Knowledge, Mean

  William Whewell (1858). “Novum organon renovatum”, p.129

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• ...the question undoubtedly is, or soon will be, not whether or no we shall employ notation in chemistry, but whether we shall use a bad and incongruous, or a consistent and regular notation.

  William Whewell

  Science, Consistency, Use

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• The person who did most to give to analysis the generality and symmetry which are now its pride, was also the person who made mechanics analytical; I mean Euler.

  William Whewell

  Mean, Pride, Giving

  William Whewell (1847). “History of the Inductive Sciences: From the Earliest to the Present Time”, p.94

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• To discover the laws of operative power in material productions, whether formed by man or brought into being by Nature herself, is the work of a science, and is indeed what we more especially term Science.

  William Whewell

  Science, Men, Law

  William Whewell (1856). “Lectures on the Progress of Arts and Science, Resulting from the Great Exhibition in London ...”, p.6

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• But with regard to the material world, we can at least go so far as this;-we can perceive that events are brought about, not by insulated interpositions of Divine power, exerted in each particular ease, but by the establishment of general laws.

  William Whewell

  Science, Law, Events

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• Hence no force, however great, can stretch a cord, however fine, into a horizontal line which is accurately straight: there will always be a bending downwards.

  William Whewell

  Bending, Lines, Force

  Elementary Treatise on Mechanics ch. 4 (1819). This is an instance of unintentional rhyme and meter. After the passage's poetical qualities were pointed out to him,Whewell altered it in subsequent editions of the book.

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