Ludwig Wittgenstein Quotes

In experimental philosophy, we are to look upon propositions inferred by general induction from phenomena as accurately or very nearly true, notwithstanding any contrary hypotheses that may be imagined, till such time as other phenomena occur by which they may either be made more accurate or liable to exceptions.

But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.

The proper method for inquiring after the properties of things is to deduce them from experiments.

Every fundamental law has exceptions. But you still need the law or else all you have is observations that don't make sense. And that's not science. That's just taking notes.

It is not observation but theory that led me to this result that experience has confirmed afterwards.

You must acquire something of that industrious habit of mind which the study of natural science gives,—the art of comparing, of perceiving true likenesses and true differences, and so of classifying and arranging what you see; the art of connecting facts together in your mind in cause and effect

Scientific method, although in its more refined forms it may seem complicated, is in essence remarkably simply. It consists in observing such facts as will enable the observer to discover general laws governing facts of the kind in question. The two stages, first of observation, and second of inference to a law, are both essential, and each is susceptible of almost indefinite refinement. (1931)

We first observe facts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.

A single observation that is inconsistent with some generalization points to the falsehood of the generalization, and thereby 'points to itself'.

Induction is a process of inference; it proceeds from the known to the unknown.

In one word, to draw the rule from experience, one must generalize; this is a necessity that imposes itself on the most circumspect observer.

The so-called law of induction cannot possibly be a law of logic, since it is obviously a proposition with a sense.--Nor, therefore, can it be an a priori law.

For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses.

Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.

Particular facts are never scientific; only generalization can establish science.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

Every science consists in the coordination of facts; if the different observations were entirely isolated, there would be no science.

The scientific method actually correctly uses the most direct evidence as the most reliable, because that's the way you are least likely to get led astray into dead ends and to misunderstand your data.

The grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.

Modern science is predicated on 'truths' verified through accurate observation and measurements of physical world phenomena.

Hypotheses should be subservient only in explaining the properties of things but not assumed in determining them, unless so far as they may furnish experiments.

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Science is the systematic classification of experience.

My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.

You make observations, write theories to fit them, try experiments to disprove the theories and, if you can't, you've got something.