,
3 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
True, it is not so easy to draw a precise distinction between description and explanation. I would say that we explain some generalization about the world by showing how it follows from some more fundamental generalization, but what do we mean by fundamental? - S. Weinberg.
... Still, I think we know what we mean when we say that Newton’s laws of gravitation and motion are more fundamental than Kepler’s three laws of planetary motion. The great success of Newton was in explaining the motions of the planets, ...
2/3
2/3
... not merely describing them. Newton did not explain gravitation, and he knew that he had not, but that is the way it always is with explanation—something is always left for future explanation.
3/3
3/3
