Rationalism... Is A Secularized Form Of The

The Idea Of A Method That Contains Firm, Unchanging, And Absolutely Binding Principles For Conducting The Business Of Science Meets Considerable Difficulty When Confronted With The Results Of Historical Research. We Find, Then, That There Is Not A Single Rule, However Plausible, And However Firmly Grounded In Epistemology, That Is Not Violated At Some Time Or Another.

Confronted With Such A Variety Most Philosophers Try To Establish One Approach To The Exclusion Of All Others. As Far As They Are Concerned There Can Only Be One True Way- And They Want To Find It. Thus Normative Philosophers Argue That Knowledge Is A Result Of The Application Of Certain Rules, They Propose Rules Which In Their Opinion Constitute Knowledge And Reject What Clashes With Them.

Yes, The Academic World Is Screwed Up, And There Is Nothing You Can Do About It. But Don't Worry About That. Just Do What You Want. If You Know What You Want To Do And Advocate For It, No One Will Put Any Energy Into Stopping You.

No Theory Ever Agrees With All The Facts In Its Domain, Yet It Is Not Always The Theory That Is To Blame. Facts Are Constituted By Older Ideologies, And A Clash Between Facts And Theories May Be Proof Of Progress. It Is Also A First Step In Our Attempt To Find The Principles Implicit In Familiar Observational Notions.

The Best Education Consists In Immunizing People Against Systematic Attempts At Education.