Theoretical Quotes - Page 5

• The desire to serve the common good must without fail be a requisite of the soul, a necessity for personal happiness; if it issuesnot from there, but from theoretical or other considerations, it is not at all the same thing.

  Anton Chekhov

  Soul, Desire, Charity

  "Note-Book of Anton Chekhov". Book by Anton Chekhov, 1921.

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• A second possible approach to general systems theory is through the arrangement of theoretical systems and constructs in a hierarchy of complexity, roughly corresponding to the complexity of the "individuals" of the various empirical fields... leading towards a "system of systems." [...] I suggest below a possible arrangement of "levels" of theoretical discourse...(vi) [...] the "animal" level, characterized by increased mobility, teleological behavior and self-awareness...

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Animal, Self, Mobility

  "General systems theory - the skeleton of science". Kenneth E. Boulding, Management Science, Volume 2, No. 3 (pp. 200-201), April 1956.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• One advantage of exhibiting a hierarchy of systems in this way is that it gives us some idea of the present gaps in both theoretical and empirical knowledge. Adequate theoretical models extend up to about the fourth level, and not much beyond. Empirical knowledge is deficient at practically all levels.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Ideas, Giving, Way

  "General systems theory - the skeleton of science". Kenneth E. Boulding, Management Science, Volume 2, No. 3 (p. 201), April 1956.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• General Systems Theory is a name which has come into use to describe a level of theoretical model-building which lies somewhere between the highly generalized constructions of pure mathematics and the specific theories of the specialized disciplines. Mathematics attempts to organize highly general relationships into a coherent system, a system however which does not have any necessary connections with the "real" world around us. It studies all thinkable relationships abstracted from any concrete situation or body of empirical knowledge.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Real, Lying, Names

  "General Systems Theory - The Skeleton of Science". Management Science, Volume 2. No. 3, pp. 197-208, www.panarchy.org. April 1956.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Selfish, Men, Thinking

  "Notes on a Theory of Philanthropy". "Philanthropy and Public Policy", edited by Frank G. Dickinson, 1962.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The hypothesis I wish to advance is thatthe language of morality is ingrave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have--very largely if not entirely--lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.

  Alasdair MacIntyre

  Keys, Expression, Wish

  4 Copy quote

• They [free market policies] were never based on solid empirical and theoretical foundations, and even as many of these policies were being pushed, academic economists were explaining the limitations of markets for instance, whenever information is imperfect, which is to say always.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Foundation, Information, Imperfect

  "Bleakonomics". www.nytimes.com. September 30, 2007.

  20 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is natural that a man should consider the work of his hands or his brain to be useful and important. Therefore nobody will object to an ardent experimentalist boasting of his measurements and rather looking down on the 'paper and ink' physics of his theoretical friend, who on his part is proud of his lofty ideas and despises the dirty fingers of the other.
  Experiment and Theory in Physics

  Max Born

  Dirty, Men, Hands

  5 Copy quote

• Had Poincaré been as strong in practical science as he was in theoretical he might have made a fourth with the incomparable
  three, Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Strong, Three, Might

  Eric Temple Bell (1945). “Men of Mathematics”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We've been following many forms of democratized ownership, starting with co-ops, land banks at the neighborhood level, municipal ownership and state ownership of banks - there's a whole series of these that attempt to fill the small-scale infrastructure that can build up to a larger theoretical vision.

  Gar Alperovitz

  Land, Vision, Levels

  Source: www.salon.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I care not for the theoretical symmetry and impregnable logic of your moral code, I care not for the hoary respectability and traditional mysticisms of your theological institutions, I care not for the beauty and solemnity of your rituals and religious ceremonies, I care not even for the reasonableness and unimpeachable fairness of your social ethics,--if it does not turn out better, nobler, truer, men and women,--if it does not add to the world's stock of valuable souls,--if it does not give us a sounder, healthier, more reliable product from this great factory of men--I will have none of it.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Religious, Men, Giving

  Anna Julia Cooper, Charles C. Lemert, Esme Bhan (1998). “The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including A Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters”, p.187, Rowman & Littlefield

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• In a few decades of reconstruction, even the mathematical natural sciences, the ancient archetypes of theoretical perfection, have changed habit completely!

  Edmund Husserl

  Perfection, Ancient, Habit

  Edmund Husserl, Peter McCormick, Frederick Elliston (1981). “Husserl, shorter works”, Univ of Notre Dame Pr

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is the key of modern science and is the beginning of the true understanding of nature. This idea. That to look at the things, to record the details, and to hope that in the information thus obtained, may lie a clue to one or another of a possible theoretical interpretation.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Lying, Keys, Ideas

  "The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Why does it have to be politics? Is there a dynamism to that world and a theoretical capacity to do things that draws many talented people? Absolutely. Are there other ways to be involved and lead an interesting life? Of course.

  Eliot Spitzer

  People, Interesting, Doe

  4 Copy quote

• I feel that I've had enough theoretical speculation to last me a lifetime.

  Susan Sontag

  Lasts, Had Enough, Lifetime

  Source: ctheory.net

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The entire annals of Observation probably do not elsewhere exhibit so extraordinary a verification of any theoretical conjecture adventured on by the human spirit!

  John Pringle Nichol

  Adventure, Science, Spirit

  John Pringle Nichol (1848). “The planet Neptune: an exposition and history”, p.90

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Non-violence is very weak in the theoretical sense; it cannot defend itself. But it is most powerful in the action situation where people are using non-violence because they want desperately to bring about some change. Non-violence in action is a very potent force and it can't be stopped. The people who are struggling have the complete say-so. No man-made law, no human ruler, no army can destroy this. There is no way it can be destroyed... And so, if we have the capacity to endure, if we have the patience, things will change.

  Cesar Chavez

  Powerful, Struggle, Army

  4 Copy quote

• It seems sensible to discard all hope of observing hitherto unobservable quantities, such as the position and period of the electron... Instead it seems more reasonable to try to establish a theoretical quantum mechanics, analogous to classical mechanics, but in which only relations between observable quantities occur.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Science, Trying, Mechanic

  4 Copy quote

• Barring a theoretical resolution, which I think is unlikely, you either have to say there are zillions of parallel universes out there that we can't observe at present or you have to say there was a plan. I actually find the argument of the existence of a God who did the planning more compelling than the bubbling of all these multiverses.

  Richard Dawkins

  Thinking, Planning, Argument

  Source: inters.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Everyone has a set of presuppositions: what gender is, what it's not. And they may not write them out or they may not be in theoretical books published by Routledge, but they have a theory.

  Judith Butler

  Book, Writing, May

  Source: ilga.org

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Kant's treatments of rational theology and metaphysics were aimed primarily at theoretical questions. His attitude toward the pseudo-sciences of "special metaphysics" in Wolff and Baumgarten was always double-edged. He did see them as pseudo-sciences but also valued their doctrinal value and especially their regulative value for the empirical sciences. Like his views about religion, I don't think any of this is any longer viable in its original form.

  Allen W. Wood

  Attitude, Thinking, Views

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not only in order to act morally, but even to formulate theoretical questions, devise experiments, choose which ones to perform and what conclusions to draw from then - we must presuppose that we are free. That's the sense in which it is true that for Kant "we must assume we are free."

  Allen W. Wood

  Order, Assuming, Conclusion

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not only our moral life, but even our use of theoretical reason - on which we rely in rationally inquiring into nature - presupposes that we are free.

  Allen W. Wood

  Use, Inquiring, Moral

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Cabal is of two kinds, theoretical and practical, with the practical Cabala, which is engaged in the construction of talismans and amulets, we have nothing to do. The theoretical is divided into the lineal and dogmatic. The dogmatic is nothing more than the summary of the metaphysical doctrine taught by the Cabalist doctors. It is, in other words, the system of the Jewish philosophy.

  Albert Mackey

  Philosophy, Doctors, Two

  7 Copy quote

• The first thing to realize about physics ... is its extraordinary indirectness.... For physics is not about the real world, it is about "abstractions" from the real world, and this is what makes it so scientific.... Theoretical physics runs merrily along with these unreal abstractions, but its conclusions are checked, at every possible point, by experiments.

  Anthony Standen

  Running, Real, Science

  10 Copy quote