Jan F Qvigstad: On learning from history – truths and eternal truths Speech by Mr Jan F Qvigstad, Deputy Governor of Norges Bank (Central Bank of Norway), at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, 13 November 2012. The text below may differ from the actual presentation. This speech does not contain assessments of the economic situation or current interest rate setting. *  *  *  I have received valuable assistance in preparing this speech. Outside the Bank, I would like to thank Mike Bordo, Marc Flandreau, Henrik Mestad, Henrik Syse and Knut Sydsæter. At the Bank, I would like to thank the following persons in particular for their contributions: Øyvind Eitrheim, Amund Holmsen, Jon Nicolaisen, Øystein Olsen, Øystein Sjølie, Birger Vikøren NS Mari Aasgaard Walle. I would also like to thank Helle Snellingen for her contribution to the translation of the text into English. Introduction All scientific and scholarly disciplines have a particular, and not immutable, set of truths. Mathematics and theology are possible exceptions, though for different reasons. As the late Professor Knut Sydsæter underscored when assisting me with this speech; in mathematics new results are proved on the basis of fundamental axioms and become new truths. Theology also relies on truths, even eternal truths. Even if logical proofs of God’s existence have long been an important pursuit, it is safe to say that the truths in theology today stem from faith.
Prices adjust automatically to supply and demand, and the general view was that  Newton’s theory shown to be insufficient, during the solar eclipse of 1919. Scientists were then able to observe that the light from distant stars was bent by the Sun’s gravity, just as Einstein had predicted. Many scientists once believed that the Earth looks the way it does, with mountains and valleys, because the Earth was originally a red-hot mass that gradually shrivelled as it cooled. We know what an orange looks like after a long drying process or what clay looks like after being exposed to the air for a time. What was a smooth surface becomes wrinkled. It was 100 years ago this year that the German meteorologist Alfred Wegener proposed an alternative theory of continental drift. He used heuristic arguments based on studies of coastlines. Brazil has a coastline that is an apparent perfect fit with the Gulf of Guinea on the west coast of Africa. Even so, the theory was not accepted until it was given a proper theoretical foundation and empirical grounding. The breakthrough came 50 years ago, when the American geologist Harry Hess proposed his theory of sea-floor spreading, and by the end of the 1960s the theory of plate tectonics became established science. The Centre for Advanced Study, which is located here in the Academy, recently hosted a research group that is at the very international forefront of this field.