Our Aim Must Be To Make Our

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.

It Is Clear That Everybody Interested In Science Must Be Interested In World 3 Objects. A Physical Scientist, To Start With, May Be Interested Mainly In World 1 Objects--say Crystals And X-rays. But Very Soon He Must Realize How Much Depends On Our Interpretation Of The Facts, That Is, On Our Theories, And So On World 3 Objects. Similarly, A Historian Of Science, Or A Philosopher Interested In Science Must Be Largely A Student Of World 3 Objects.

The True Enlightenment Thinker, The True Rationalist, Never Wants To Talk Anyone Into Anything. No, He Does Not Even Want To Convince; All The Time He Is Aware That He May Be Wrong. Above All, He Values The Intellectual Independence Of Others Too Highly To Want To Convince Them In Important Matters. He Would Much Rather Invite Contradiction, Preferably In The Form Of Rational And Disciplined Criticism. He Seeks Not To Convince But To Arouse - To Challenge Others To Form Free Opinions.

The Fundamental Thing About Human Languages Is That They Can And Should Be Used To Describe Something; And This Something Is, Somehow, The World. To Be Constantly And Almost Exclusively Interested In The Medium - In Spectacle-cleaning - Is A Result Of A Philosophical Mistake.

The War Of Ideas Is A Greek Invention. It Is One Of The Most Important Inventions Ever Made. Indeed, The Possibility Of Fighting With With Words And Ideas Instead Of Fighting With Swords Is The Very Basis Of Our Civilization, And Especially Of All Its Legal And Parliamentary Institutions.