Hans Reichenbach - Fact Quotes

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Although it is admitted that certain differences cannot be verified by experiment, we should not infer from this fact that they do not exist.... we are accused of having confused subjective inability with objective indeterminacy.

Hans Reichenbach
... the mathematician uses an indirect definition of congruence, making use of the fact that the axiom of parallels together with an additional condition can replace the definition of congruence.

Hans Reichenbach
We are frequently faced with the necessity of looking for the picture required for the visualization of an object, not in the perception of this particular object, but in a different perceptual image.... we can assert the discrepancy between the perceived picture and the objective state. This discrepancy... proves absolutely nothing against the fact that all visualizations are merely sense qualities of the perceptual space.... If the parallelism is... to be visualized, we must supplement our assertion by the description of certain qualities with which we are familiar from perceptual space.

Hans Reichenbach
Once a definition of congruence is given, the choice of geometry is no longer in our hands; rather, the geometry is now an empirical fact.

Hans Reichenbach
... the differential element of non-Euclidean spaces is Euclidean. This fact, however, is analogous to the relations between a straight line and a curve, and cannot lead to an epistemological priority of Euclidean geometry, in contrast to the views of certain authors.

Hans Reichenbach
Carnap calls such concepts as point, straight line, etc., which are given by implicit definitions, improper concepts. Their peculiarity rests on the fact that they do not characterize a thing by its properties, but by its relation to other things. Consider for example the concept of the last car of a train. Whether or not a particular car falls under this description does not depend on its properties but on its position relative to other cars. We could therefore speak of relative concepts, but would have to extend the meaning of this term to apply not only to relations but also to the elements of the relations.

Hans Reichenbach
This fact... proves that space measurements are reducible to time measurements. Time is therefore logically prior to space.

Hans Reichenbach
Perhaps there has been no greater revolution in the history of mankind than this gradual transition, from the nature, full of gods, of primitive peoples, through the metaphysical nature of the philosophers, to the dispassionate nature of the physics of today, in which there are only facts and conceptual relations between them.

Hans Reichenbach
The study of inductive inference belongs to the theory of probability, since observational facts can make a theory only probable but will never make it absolutely certain.

Hans Reichenbach
The scientist who discovers a theory is usually guided to his discovery by guesses; he cannot name a method by means of which he found the theory and can only say that it appeared plausible to him, that he had the right hunch or that he saw intuitively which assumption would fit the facts.

Hans Reichenbach
There is no other way to solve the problem of time than the way through physics. More than any other science, physics has been concerned with the nature of time. If time is objective the physicist must have discovered that fact.

Hans Reichenbach