I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.
Interpretation
Embracing uncertainty is essential for scientific inquiry and learning.
In this quote, Richard P. Feynman emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and accepting uncertainty as a fundamental aspect of knowledge and learning. He suggests that realizing the limits of our understanding fosters a mindset necessary for scientists and students alike, promoting curiosity and discovery in the pursuit of truth.
In practice
During a lecture on scientific research methods, this quote can highlight the importance of embracing uncertainty in experimentation.
The philosophical question before us is, when we make an observation of our track in the past, does the result of our observation become real in the same sense that the final state would be defined if an outside observer were to make the observation?
We seem gradually to be groping toward an understanding of the world of subatomic particles, but we really do not know how far we have yet to go in this task.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
It has not yet become obvious to me that there's no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there's no real problem, but I'm not sure there's no real problem.
For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?
Science is a way to teach how something gets to be known, what is not known, to what extent things are known (for nothing is known absolutely), how to handle doubt and uncertainty, what the rules of evidence are, how to think about things so that judgments can be made, how to distinguish truth from fraud, and from show.
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Our role is to develop techniques that allow us to provide emergency life-saving procedures to injured patients in an extreme, remote environment without the presence of a physician.
If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries.
By venturing into space, we improve life for everyone here on Earth - scientific advances and innovations that come from this kind of research create products we use in our daily lives.
It takes sixty-five thousand errors before you are qualified to make a rocket.
In science, you can say things that seem crazy, but in the long run, they can turn out to be right. We can get really good evidence, and in the end, the community will come around.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.