A century ago physics faced a problem. Its two-hundred year foundation of Newtonian thought was showing signs of weakness. In the seventeenth century Newton had overthrown the physics of another great thinker, Aristotle, but now Newton’s time had come. The quantum revolution was coming, but as with most revolutionists there would be tumult.
The new thinking that was emerging in physics a century ago would be rejected by those who were firmly affixed to the old Newtonian foundation, and it became clear to those such as the great Max Planck that science advances one funeral at a time.
The thought of intelligent, trained scientists clinging to their way of thought in spite of the evidence is not a happy one, but it is understandable. Movements and traditions gather their own momentum and they don’t occasionally stop to allow for graceful exit. Leaping from a moving train may cause injury and if you don’t see the cliff ahead then why jump?
But those with a keen sense do jump. They see the looming chasm and know what to do. They are the ones history will admire for their combination of knowledge, awareness and courage. They lead the way, even though the way may be unknown. Consider Stanley Salthe, author of, among other things, the 1972 Holt McDougal text Evolutionary Biology. Salthe understands that evolutionary theory is not a fact but rather an idea with substantial problems. He writes:
Moving now into consideration of details of the formal properties of the concept of natural selection, we can start very broadly by noting that it is basically a theory of, as Einstein might have remarked, higgledy-piggledy.
Salthe shows that we can transcend outmoded thinking.
