We Do Not Know. We Can Only

The Initial Stage, The Act Of Conceiving Or Inventing A Theory, Seems To Me Neither To Call For Logical Analysis Nor To Be Susceptible Of It.

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.

The Belief In A Political Utopia Is Especially Dangerous. This Is Possibly Connected With The Fact That The Search For A Better World, Like The Investigation Of Our Environment, Is (if I Am Correct) One Of The Oldest And Most Important Of All The Instincts.

My Thesis Is That What We Call 'science' Is Differentiated From The Older Myths Not By Being Something Distinct From A Myth, But By Being Accompanied By A Second-order Tradition-that Of Critically Discussing The Myth. ... In A Certain Sense, Science Is Myth-making Just As Religion Is.

A System Such As Classical Mechanics May Be 'scientific' To Any Degree You Like; But Those Who Uphold It Dogmatically - Believing, Perhaps, That It Is Their Business To Defend Such A Successful System Against Criticism As Long As It Is Not Conclusively Disproved - Are Adopting The Very Reverse Of That Critical Attitude Which In My View Is The Proper One For The Scientist.