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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 94 KB, 850x400, quote-the-aim-of-science-is-to-seek-the-simplest-explanations-of-complex-facts-we-are-apt-to-fall-into-alfred-north-whitehead-277870.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14747400 No.14747400 [Reply] [Original]

Was Wh*tehoid retarded? Why can't things be simple?

>> No.14747416

based whitehead btfoing dogmatic scientism.

>> No.14747435

>>14747400
Yeah, why not?

>> No.14747464

Would you rather live in a world where you only ever have 2 choices at once? That's why things can't be simple. Because it would be boring.

>> No.14747513

Modern scientist aren't seeking simplicity anymore. I'm /sci/ retarded but I saw some popsci doc long time ago where a physicist explained that elegance was a part of the scientific principle only until the moment shit like the standard model and quantum mechanics arrived and threw it out the window. 20 century onwards physicists aren't taught to seek the "simplest" explanation.

>> No.14747604

>>14747513
whitehead was responding directly to the introduction of quantum mechanics and general relativity in his work.

>> No.14747612

explanations may be simple, or simplistic; but any explanation is also a selection, and selection is an abstraction and so a departure from the fullness of the concrete.

>> No.14747623
File: 7 KB, 192x192, Buf7perc_200x200.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
14747623

>>14747513
>20 century onwards physicists aren't taught to seek the "simplest" explanation
i dont really get what you're saying here but there were certainly scientists that were neurotically attached the simple explanation.

You ever heard of Nikola Tesla? To his death bed he denied relativity and the existence of electrons. He died in the 40s... long after relativity was proven (or, at least, aether theories were disproven).

>> No.14747661

>>14747604
Whitehead also died in 1947. There's a 73 year gap, at minimum, between the science of today and the science of the day that quote was from.

>> No.14747676

>>14747661
hey, you know what, you're right. whitehead clearly had no idea what he was talking about, and had no way of anticipating the developments of the fields he was directly involved in. what a fucking retard.