Theoretical Quotes - Page 2

• We call 'Slavery is wrong' a moral truth because there is a specific history of theoretical investigation of a particular kind of slavery. We discussed it for centuries in metaphysical, economic, biological, and philosophical terms; we listened to all the arguments pro and con, we read all the testimonies of slaves and witnesses, and we decided. Though this 'we" is not everybody on earth, or even most people, who've never thought about slavery much.

  Catherine Wilson

  Philosophical, People, Slavery

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• My linguistics is pretty theoretical.

  Noam Chomsky

  Linguistics

  Source: brightestyoungthings.com

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• And then there is Pythagoras. The legend is that the founder of theoretical mathematics was so outraged when one of his students, the haplessly gifted Hippasus, discovered irrational numbers that he sent the poor fellow out on a raft to drown, initiating a venerable tradition of professors mistreating their graduate students.

  Rebecca Goldstein

  Irrational Numbers, Legends, Students

  Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (2014). “Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away”, p.31, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• I think one of the things we learned from the physicists and also the theoretical biologists is the idea that when you're dealing with very complex systems you're going to get a large variety of behavior which can be interpreted as hill climbing, but hill climbing with a lot of modifications, hill climbing with big jumps occasionally.

  Kenneth Arrow

  Thinking, Ideas, Climbing

  Source: www.minneapolisfed.org

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• The rabid opposition to group selection has now considerably subsided. In the process, the conceptual structure of evolutionary theory has become clearer, as have the relationships that connect different theoretical approaches.

  Elliott Sober

  Groups, Different, Structure

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Political parties are complicated coalitions and aren't excessively theoretical.

  William Kristol

  Party, Political, Complicated

  Source: www.chicagomaroon.com

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• It is probably safe to say that all the changes of factual knowledge which have led to the relativity theory, resulting in a very great theoretical development, are completely trivial from any point of view except their relevance to the structure of a theoretical system.

  Talcott Parsons

  Views, Development, Safe

  TALCOTT PARSONS (1937). “THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL ACTION”

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• It is that of increasing knowledge of empirical fact, intimately combined with changing interpretations of this body of fact - hence changing general statements about it - and, not least, a changing a structure of the theoretical system.

  Talcott Parsons

  Body, Facts, Structure

  Talcott Parsons (1968). “The structure of social action: a study in social theory with special reference to a group of recent European writers”

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• One thing most of us agree on is that the universe exists (people who deny that usually follow some trade other than science), so if some theoretical particle interaction would lead ultimately to the nonexistence of the universe, then you can save a lot of electricity by not trying to demonstrate it.

  Joe Haldeman

  People, Trying, Electricity

  Joe Haldeman (1998). “Forever Peace”, p.24, Penguin

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• A number of current theoretical explorations will turn out to be passing fancies...

  Abraham Pais

  Numbers, Fancy, Exploration

  "Inward Bound : Of Matter and Forces in the Physical World" by Abraham Pais, (p. 45), 1988.

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• As a theoretical physicist, I feel at once proud and humble at the thought of the illustrious figures that have preceded me here to receive the greatest of all honors in science, the Nobel prize.

  Murray Gell-Mann

  Humble, Honor, Proud

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• I vowed to myself that when I grew up and became a theoretical physicist, in addition to doing research, I would write books that I would have liked to have read as a child. So whenever I write, I imagine myself, as a youth, reading my books, being thrilled by the incredible advances being made in physics and science.

  Michio Kaku

  Children, Reading, Book

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• Black holes provide theoreticians with an important theoretical laboratory to test ideas. Conditions within a black hole are so extreme, that by analyzing aspects of black holes we see space and time in an exotic environment, one that has shed important, and sometimes perplexing, new light on their fundamental nature.

  Brian Greene

  Light, Ideas, Space

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• There is more interest in what is occurring in technology companies that impact news. Such companies don't have the same sense of transparency about what they do. They have a tradition of secrecy about products, mores and decision-making that goes along with Silicon Valley and intellectual property and technology. You cannot step onto the grounds of Google without signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement. That industrial secrecy mentality exists along with a theoretical sensibility about transparency on the Web, which is different than transparency inside companies that profit from the Web.

  Tom Rosenstiel

  Technology, Google, Intellectual

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• The fear of speculation, the ostensible rush from the theoretical to the practical, brings about the same shallowness in action that it does in knowledge. It is by studying a strictly theoretical philosophy that we become most acquainted with Ideas, and only Ideas provide action with vigour and ethical meaning.

  Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling

  Philosophy, Knowledge, Ideas

  "Lectures on the Method of Academic Study" by Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, translated by E. S. Morgan, edited by Norbert Guterman, 1966.

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• Mediocre theoretical physicists make no progress. They spend all their time understanding other people's progress.

  Jeff Bezos

  People, Understanding, Progress

  "Brought to book" by Andrew Smith, www.theguardian.com. February 10, 2001.

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• Who is writing these screenwriting books? Not actually writing for the studios in Hollywood. These are people that have one or a half of a credit on maybe one movie, or none. So they're all theoretical.

  Thomas Lennon

  Book, Writing, People

  Source: www.gq.com

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• The young were always theoretical; only the middle-aged could realize the deadliness of principles.

  Dorothy L. Sayers

  Principles, Realizing, Middle

  Dorothy L. Sayers (2012). “Gaudy Night”, p.541, Open Road Media

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• The life of theoretical philosophy is the best and happiest a man can lead. Few men are capable of it and then only intermittently. For the rest there is a second-best way of life, that of moral virtue and practical wisdom.

  Aristotle

  Philosophy, Men, Words Of Wisdom

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• Thus, the weight of my criticism is directed against the inadequacy of the theoretical foundations of the laissez-faire doctrine upon which I was brought up and for many years I taught

  John Maynard Keynes

  Years, Criticism, Foundation

  John Maynard Keynes (2006). “General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money”, p.308, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• Because of recent improvements in the accuracy of theoretical predictions based on large scale ab initio quantum mechanical calculations, meaningful comparisons between theoretical and experimental findings have become possible.

  Yuan T. Lee

  Meaningful, Improvement, Predictions

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• After some minor pieces of theoretical study that I worked on, a student in my statistical mechanics class brought to my attention a problem in polyelectrolytes.

  Rudolph A. Marcus

  Class, Attention, Pieces

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• Names and theoretical things don't occur to me. If they do, I'm not doing my real playing mode.

  Lee Konitz

  Real, Names, Doing Me

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• Carlsen came with a line that was not very theoretical, trying to challenge the World Champion to play chess. [...] But Anand proved that even this obscure line is something he has studied before, and it was Carlsen that was set back.

  Alejandro Ramirez

  Play, Challenges, Champion

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• Everyone caved, adopted loose [accounting] standards, and created exotic derivatives linked to theoretical models. As a result, all kinds of earnings, blessed by accountants, are not really being earned. When you reach for the money, it melts away. It was never there. It [accounting for derivatives] is just disgusting. It is a sewer, and if I'm right, there will be hell to pay in due course. All of you will have to prepare to deal with a blow-up of derivative books.

  Charlie Munger

  Blessed, Book, Blow

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