I Have Spoken To Einstein And He

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.

Some Scientists Find, Or So It Seems, That They Get Their Best Ideas When Smoking; Others By Drinking Coffee Or Whisky. Thus There Is No Reason Why I Should Not Admit That Some May Get Their Ideas By Observing, Or By Repeating Observations.

When We Enter A New Situation In Life And Are Confronted By A New Person, We Bring With Us The Prejudices Of The Past And Our Previous Experiences Of People. These Prejudices We Project Upon The New Person. Indeed, Getting To Know A Person Is Largely A Matter Of Withdrawing Projections; Of Dispelling The Smoke Screen Of What We Imagine He Is Like And Replacing It With The Reality Of What He Is Actually Like.

Simple Statements Are To Be Prized More Highly Than Less Simple Ones Because They Tell Us More; Because Their Empirical Content Is Greater; And Because They Are Better Testable.

The Metaphysical Doctrine Of Determinism Simply Asserts That All Events In This World Are Fixed, Or Unalterable, Or Predetermined. It Does Not Assert That They Are Known To Anybody, Or Predictable By Scientific Means. But It Asserts That The Future Is As Little Changeable As Is The Past. Everybody Knows What We Mean When We Say That The Past Cannot Be Changed. It Is In Precisely The Same Sense That The Future Cannot Be Changed, According To Metaphysical Determinism.