Hypothesis Quotes - Page 2

Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena.

Leonhard Euler

Science, May, Statistics

Leonhard Euler (1955). “Commentationes mechanicae ad theoriam corporum fluidorum pertinentes 2nd part”, p.80, Springer Science & Business Media

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Probably the simplest hypothesis... is that there may be a slow process of annihilation of matter.

Arthur Eddington

May, Matter, Genocide

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It wouild be very discouraging if somewhere down the line you could ask a computer if the Riemann hypothesis is correct and it said, 'Yes, it is true, but you won't be able to understand the proof.' John Horgan.

Ronald Graham

Understanding, Lines, Able

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As has repeatedly been stated, the underlying hypothesis, which in a number of cases has been supported by direct experimental evidence, is that each gene controls the production, function, and specificity of a particular enzyme.

Edward Lawrie Tatum

Numbers, Enzymes, Genes

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Nevertheless, as is a frequent occurrence in science, a general hypothesis was constructed from a few specific instances of a phenomenon.

Sidney Altman

Phenomenon, Instance, Nevertheless

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The hypothesis of surviving intelligence and personality - not only surviving but anxious and able with difficulty to communicate - is the simplest and most straightforward and the only one that fits all the facts.

Oliver Lodge

Personality, Facts, Able

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What is required of a working hypothesis is a fine capacity for discrimination

Jean-Francois Lyotard

Discrimination, Capacity, Fine

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If I were to awaken after having slept for a thousand years, my first question would be: Has the Riemann hypothesis been proven?

David Hilbert

Years, Would Be, Awakening

"Mathematical Mysteries: The Beauty and Magic of Numbers". Book by Calvin C. Clawson, p. 258, 1999.

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The more experiences and experiments accumulate in the exploration of nature, the more precarious the theories become. But it is not always good to discard them immediately on this account. For every hypothesis which once was sound was useful for thinking of previous phenomena in the proper interrelations and for keeping them in context. We ought to set down contradictory experiences separately, until enough have accumulated to make building a new structure worthwhile.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nature, Science, Thinking

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God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness with the light of reason. He is the light.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Light, Self, Darkness

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1976). “Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion”, p.75, Macmillan

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Hypotheses non fingo. I frame no hypotheses.

Isaac Newton

Science

Isaac Newton (1979). “Opticks, Or, A Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections & Colours of Light”, p.21, Courier Corporation

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It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect, probably transitory, which only very limited minds can declare to be a certainty or a truth.

Milan Kundera

Maturity, Mind, Favors

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Roughly speaking, this hypothesis asks whether drug use causes some of the diseases officially associated with AIDS, such as immunodeficiency and Kaposi's sarcoma.

Serge Lang

Drug Use, Hiv, Disease

Serge Lang (1998). “Challenges”, p.622, Springer Science & Business Media

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The theory of the earth is the science which describes and explains changes that the terrestrial globe has undergone from its beginning until today, and which allows the prediction of those it shall undergo in the future. The only way to understand these changes and their causes is to study the present-day state of the globe in order to gradually reconstruct its earlier stages, and to develop probable hypotheses on its future state. Therefore, the present state of the earth is the only solid base on which the theory can rely.

Horace-Benedict de Saussure

Science, Order, Understanding

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It must be conceded that a theory has an important advantage if its basic concepts and fundamental hypotheses are 'close to experience,' and greater confidence in such a theory is certainly justified. There is less danger of going completely astray, particularly since it takes so much less time and effort to disprove such theories by experience. Yet more and more, as the depth of our knowledge increases, we must give up this advantage in our quest for logical simplicity in the foundations of physical theory.

Albert Einstein

Giving Up, Knowledge, Science

Albert Einstein (2010). “Ideas And Opinions”, p.349, Broadway Books

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Originally, in the early eighties, the drug hypothesis was among the first which occurred to scientists.

Serge Lang

Drug, Firsts, Scientist

Serge Lang (2012). “Challenges”, p.623, Springer Science & Business Media

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[Modern science] passed through a long period of uncertainty and inconclusive experiment, but as the instrumental aids to research improved, and the results of observation accumulated, phantoms of the imagination were exorcised, idols of the cave were shattered, trustworthy materials were obtained for logical treatment, and hypotheses by long and careful trial were converted into theories.

Thomas George Bonney

Science, Idols, Long

Thomas George Bonney (1913). “The Present Relations of Science and Religion”

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... one of the main functions of an analogy or model is to suggest extensions of the theory by considering extensions of the analogy, since more is known about the analogy than is known about the subject matter of the theory itself ... A collection of observable concepts in a purely formal hypothesis suggesting no analogy with anything would consequently not suggest either any directions for its own development.

Mary Hesse

Science, Analogies, Development

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The hypothesis may be put forward, to be tested by the s subsequent investigation, that this development has been in large part a matter of the reciprocal interaction of new factual insights and knowledge on the one hand with changes in the theoretical system on the other.

Talcott Parsons

Hands, Development, May

Talcott Parsons, Peter Hamilton (1985). “Readings from Talcott Parsons”, Chichester [West Sussex] : E. Horwood ; London ; New York : Tavistock Publications

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The first and most important reason for its elimination is the unquestioned fact that evolution is not a science; it is a hypothesis only, a speculation.

William Bell

Important, Firsts, Facts

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Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis.

Pierre-Simon Laplace

Inspirational, Witty, Humorous

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Earlier theories ... were based on the hypothesis that all the matter in the universe was created in one big bang at a particular time in the remote past. [Coining the "big bang" expression.]

Fred Hoyle

Science, Past, Expression

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In writing the history of a disease, every philosophical hypothesis whatsoever, that has previously occupied the mind of the author, should lie in abeyance.

Thomas Sydenham

Lying, Philosophical, Writing

Thomas Sydenham, Robert Gordon Latham (1848). “The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D.”, p.14

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From the standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable hypothesis that the beginnings of the mental life date from as far back as the beginnings of life at large.

Wilhelm Wundt

Science, Mind, Observation

Wilhelm Max Wundt (1969). “Principles of Physiological Psychology”

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In science we kill our hypothesis instead of each other.

Jonathan Rauch

Science

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