Quote: the most interesting facts occur frequently

Quotation

the most interesting facts are those which may serve many times; these are the facts which have a chance of coming up again. We have been so fortunate as to be born in a world were there are such. Suppose that instead of 60 chemical elements there were 60 milliards [billion] of them, that they were not some common, the others rare, but that they were uniformly distributed. Then, every time we picked up a new pebble there would be great probability of its being formed by some unknown substance; all that we knew of other pebbles would be worthless for it; before each new object we should be as the new-born babe ... [p. 364] In such a world there would be no science; perhaps thought and even life would be impossible, since evolution could not there develop the preservational instincts. ... It is clear that in a complex fact a thousand circumstances are united by chance, and that only a chance still much less probable could reunite them anew.   Google-1   Google-2

Published before 1923

Additional Titles

Quote: suppose there were 60 billion chemical elements uniformly distributed; there would be no science and perhaps no thought and life; every pebble would be new

Quote: if all facts were complex, they would not repeat; a chance occurrence of a thousand circumstances

Related Topics

Group: philosophy of science   (10 topics, 377 quotes)
Topic: metaphysics and epistemology (65 items)
Topic: skepticism about knowledge (34 items)
Topic: handling complexity (59 items)