Mary Hesse

Quotes

• “One of the main functions of an analogy or model is to suggest extensions of the theory by considering extensions of the analogy, since more is known about the analogy than is known about the subject matter of the theory itself... A collection of observable concepts in a purely formal hypothesis suggesting no analogy with anything would consequently not suggest either any directions for its own development.”
• “A theory in its scientific context is not a static museum piece, but is always being extended and modified to account for new phenomena.”
• “It could plausibly be argued that far from Christian theology having hampered the study of nature for fifteen hundred years , it was Greek corruptions of biblical Christianity which had hampered it , and the attitude to nature.”
• “This of course has always been the method of empirical science, which has been suspicious of deductive argumentation unchecked by reference to experiment; but in a more general sense, and outside the practice of science itself, scientists have sometimes been the greatest offenders in adhering to dogmatic ideas against all the evidence, especially when they have tended to limit 'experience' to laboratory experiment.”

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Key dates

Born

1924

Died

2016

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

Brenda

Family name

Hesse

Gender

female

Citizenship

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Place of birth

Reigate

Occupation

historian

Educated at

University College London

Employer

University of London

Languages spoken

English language

Doctoral advisor

George Finch

Doctoral student

D. H. Mellor

Field of work

history of science

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