"It remains a real world if there is a background to the symbols β an unknown quantity which the mathematical symbol x stands for. We think we are not wholly cut off from this background. It is to this background that our own personality and consciousness belong, and those spiritual aspects of our nature not to be described by any symbolism β¦ to which mathematical physics has hitherto restricted itself."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Anti-war activistsUniversity of Cambridge facultyMathematicians from EnglandAstronomers from EnglandPhysicists from England
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Arthur Eddington
Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington OM FRS (28 December 1882 β 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the luminosity of stars, or the radiation generated by accretion onto a compact object, is named in his honour.
111 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Arthur Eddington β
Related Quotes
"The mind has an outlook which transcends the natural law by which it functions."
"Physics has in the main contented itself with studying the abridged edition of the book of nature."
"The present revolution of scientific thought follows in natural sequence on the great revolutions at earlier epochs iβ¦"
"At terrestrial temperatures matter has complex properties which are likely to prove most difficult to unravel; but itβ¦"
"We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and fβ¦"
"A star is drawing on some vast reservoir of energy by means unknown to us. This reservoir can scarcely be other than β¦"
"I think that science would never have achieved much progress if it had always imagined unknown obstacles hidden roundβ¦"
"To the pure geometer the radius of curvature is an incidental characteristic β like the grin of the Cheshire cat. To β¦"
"There once was a brainy baboon, Who always breathed down a bassoon, For he said, "It appears That in billions of yearβ¦"
"The laws of logic do not prescribe the way our minds think; they prescribe the way our minds ought to think."