And to say that in my judgement, and it is a judgement not a statement of fact, is so crazy, that it is difficult to take anything else that person says seriously. It is difficult to believe that it is the truth, as they see it. You can only inspire people to believe you. You cannot demand people believe you are speaking the truth. Marshall Saxe, a distinguished French general of the 18th century, spoke to his doctor as he was dying. “Doctor”, he said, “all life is a dream, and I’ve had a good one!” Well, it’s better than talking about biochemical reactions in the brain.
I do not believe you “explain” any of life’s mysteries. Max Plank suggested in his little book, The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics, that by making yourself familiar with the world of sense perception, the world of appearances, you were able tentatively to grasp the real world beyond. And that about sums it up, for me. Newton understood that there was no intrinsic reason why matter should behave consistently. Why should not amino-acids combine one way on Mondays, and in another way on Tuesdays? After all, Sir William Bragg said we used the classical theory of physics on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and the quantum theory on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. And Eddington’s comment was that it ought to make us more sympathetic to the man whose philosophy of the universe takes one form on weekdays, and another form on Sundays!
Anything which you can understand, you can surely recreate yourself? Biologists may one day create life; but they haven’t done it yet. And until they do, they can hardly say they have understood the processes they have studied. So I await with interest to see if biologists ever get to the heart of Nature’s complexity, just as I await with interest to see if nuclear physicists ever get to the bottom of the foundations of Nature.
Whereas in the world of action, it is different. General Montgomery having destroyed the myth of German invincibility at Alamein, was able to reproduce victory again and again. He did understand what he was doing. At the defensive battle of Medenine, he was so confident of victory, he spent the afternoon writing his private correspondence. Field Marshall Rommel achieved tactical surprise by attacking through thick mist; but all he succeeded in doing was to lose 50 tanks, without even penetrating the British anti-tank gun screen and hardly reaching the British armour in its hull-down positions. In the Law too, you have an instinct whether a prosecution will succeed, although everything may be won or lost in the play. What you need is the imagination to see how to win. And theories that life is no more than a mechanical ritual are utterly irrelevant, and are like children’s games. When men talk about their detailed experience, they are usually fascinating; it is when they step outside their competence, unless they are cautious, that they can become absurd.