Jacob Bronowski Quotes
All those formal systems, in mathematics and physics and the philosophy of science, which claim to give foundations for certain truth are surely mistaken. I am tempted to say that we do not look for truth, but for knowledge. But I dislike this form of words, for two reasons. First of all, we do look for truth, however we define it, it is what we find that is knowledge. And second, what we fail to find is not truth, but certainty; the nature of truth is exactly the knowledge that we do find.
Bronowski, Jacob. The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination. Yale University Press, 1978, p. 120.
Proof in a scientific and mathematical context is very different from the legal concept of proof. For Feynman, proof consisted of both being able to deduce a statement in much the same way as a proof is offered in plane geometry and being able to construct an experiment which will demonstrate the validity (confirm the prediction of what will happen all cases. As a theoretical physicist, most of his proofs were of the mathematical, deductive kind. There are many phenomena in mathematics and science that were, and are, known long before someone was able to offer a proof.
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
3rd Earl Russell of Kingston
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
Spinoza’s ideas were considered so radical and dangerous that he was the only man in history who was excommunicated by the Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims.
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-British mathematician and historian. He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the thirteen-part 1973 BBC television documentary series, and accompanying book, The Ascent of Man, which led to his regard as "one of the world's most celebrated intellectuals".
