Better Our Hypotheses Die For Our Errors

No Number Of Sightings Of White Swans Can Prove The Theory That All Swans Are White. The Sighting Of Just One Black One May Disprove It.

For Myself, I Am Interested In Science And In Philosophy Only Because I Want To Learn Something About The Riddle Of The World In Which We Live, And The Riddle Of Man's Knowledge Of That World. And I Believe That Only A Revival Of Interest In These Riddles Can Save The Sciences And Philosophy From An Obscurantist Faith In The Expert's Special Skill And In His Personal Knowledge And Authority.

Rationalism Is An Attitude Of Readiness To Listen To Contrary Arguments And To Learn From Experience... Of Admitting That "i May Be Wrong And You May Be Right And, By An Effort, We May Get Nearer The Truth."

The Survival Value Of Intelligence Is That It Allows Us To Extinct A Bad Idea, Before The Idea Extincts Us.

Why Do I Think That We, The Intellectuals, Are Able To Help? Simply Because We, The Intellectuals, Have Done The Most Terrible Harm For Thousands Of Years. Mass Murder In The Name Of An Idea, A Doctrine, A Theory, A Religion - That Is All "our" Doing, "our" Invention: The Invention Of The Intellectuals. If Only We Would Stop Setting Man Against Man - Often With The Best Intentions - Much Would Be Gained. Nobody Can Say That It Is Impossible For Us To Stop Doing This.