During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas - which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science.
Interpretation
Feynman highlights the importance of empirical testing in distinguishing valid ideas from false ones.
In this quote, Richard P. Feynman reflects on how, during the Middle Ages, various irrational beliefs prevailed, such as the notion that rhinoceros horn could enhance potency. He notes that the advancement of science came about through a systematic method of testing these ideas, where one could experiment to see if a belief held any truth. This method of empirical validation has been crucial in eliminating false ideas and promoting genuine knowledge.
In practice
In a science class discussing the scientific method.
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.
I think that the discovery of antimatter was perhaps the biggest jump of all the big jumps in physics in our century.
Regardless of your sex, if you have elevated testosterone levels in your blood, you're more likely to think a face with a neutral expression is instead looking threatening.
The brightest flashes in the world of thought are incomplete until they have been proven to have their counterparts in the world of fact.
Brain studies of mental workouts in which you sustain a single, chosen focus show that the more you detach from what's distracting you and refocus on what you should be paying attention to, the stronger this brain circuitry becomes.
Economics is not an exact science. It's a combination of an art and elements of science. And that's almost the first and last lesson to be learned about economics: that in my judgment, we are not converging toward exactitude, but we're improving our data bases and our ways of reasoning about them.
Science can lift people out of poverty and cure disease. That, in turn, will reduce civil unrest.
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