It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
Albert Einstein, “On the Method of Theoretical Physics”, Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford, 10 June 1933; Philosophy of Science 1/2 (1934), p. 165.
Einstein describes the aim of physics through a principle of simplicity, and right beside it he sets a limit.
The basic elements must be few and simple; yet not even a single observation may be sacrificed for this.
A theory that looks beautiful but ignores data it cannot explain is not simple; it is incomplete.
The measure holds for life as well.
Simplicity reached by trimming the truth is mere convenience; true simplicity carries the whole of the truth.