Whether in the intellectual pursuits of science or in the mystical pursuits of the spirit, the light beckons ahead, and the purpose surging in our nature responds.
Arthur EddingtonRead
We have found that where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind put into nature.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that scientific progress is a rediscovery of natural truths rather than an invention of new ideas.
Arthur Eddington's quote highlights the notion that the advancements made in science do not create new knowledge but rather uncover truths that are already present in nature. It implies that the human mind, through science, effectively retrieves the wisdom and understanding that it originally contributed to nature, suggesting a deep connection between our intellectual pursuits and the natural world.
Themes
ScienceNatureMindProgressTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the relationship between science and the natural world, this quote can be highlighted to emphasize the connection.
More from Arthur Eddington
All quotes βThe physical world is entirely abstract and without actuality apart from its linkage to consciousness.
Arthur EddingtonRead
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control. It is even possible that laws which have not their origin in the mind may be irrational, and we can never succeed in formulating them.
Arthur EddingtonRead
Whatever else there may be in our nature, responsibility toward truth is one of its attributes.
Arthur EddingtonRead
In the world of physics we watch a shadowgraph performance of the drama of familiar life. The shadow of my elbow rests on the shadow table as the shadow ink flows over the shadow paper. It is all symbolic, and as a symbol the physicist leaves it. ... The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.
Arthur EddingtonRead
So far as physics is concerned, time's arrow is a property of entropy alone.
Arthur EddingtonRead
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