That's not right. That's not even wrong.
Interpretation
This quote implies that some statements or ideas are so misguided they cannot even be understood as incorrect.
Wolfgang Pauli's quote highlights the importance of clarity and meaningful framework in scientific discussions. When something is so fundamentally illogical or absurd that it defies basic understanding, it transcends mere error, illustrating how crucial precision and coherence are in both scientific inquiry and rational discourse.
In practice
In a debate about scientific theories, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for logical reasoning.
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
Physics is very muddled again at the moment; it is much too hard for me anyway, and I wish I were a movie comedian or something like that and had never heard anything about physics!
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
What really matters for me is ... the more active role of the observer in quantum physics ... According to quantum physics the observer has indeed a new relation to the physical events around him in comparison with the classical observer, who is merely a spectator.
I confess, that very different from you, I do find sometimes scientific inspiration in mysticism ... but this is counterbalanced by an immediate sense for mathematics.
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong.
Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.
Geometry is the only science that it hath pleased God hitherto to bestow on mankind.
Imaginary time is a new dimension, at right angles to ordinary, real time.
I'll change the posture of our federal government from being one of the most anti-science administrations in American history to one that embraces science and technology.
A review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies [that praised the drugs] were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome.
The problem [with genetic research] is, we're just starting down this path, feeling our way in the dark. We have a small lantern in the form of a gene, but the lantern doesn't penetrate more than a couple of hundred feet. We don't know whether we're going to encounter chasms, rock walls or mountain ranges along the way. We don't even know how long the path is.
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