No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.Collection: May
A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.Collection: Crush
The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.Collection: Men
Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.Collection: Mean
A theory that explains everything, explains nothingCollection: Theory
It is part of my thesis that all our knowledge grows only through the correcting of our mistakes.Collection: Truth
It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.Collection: Knowledge
It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it.Collection: Freedom
We have the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should tolerate even them whenever we can do so without running a great risk; but the risk may become so great that we cannot allow ourselves the luxury.Collection: Running
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.Collection: Free Opinion
In my view, aiming at simplicity and lucidity is a moral duty of all intellectuals: lack of clarity is a sin, and pretentiousness is a crime.Collection: Views
Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program, and it is not really testable science.Collection: Research
We do not know anything - this is the first. Therefore, we should be very modest - this is the second. Not to claim that we do know when we do not - this is the third. That's the kind of attitude I'd like to popularize. There is little hope for success.Collection: Attitude
It is not possible to write clearly enough to avoid being misrepresented by people who are sufficiently determined to do so.Collection: Writing
The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.Collection: Games
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.Collection: War
The use of violence is justified only under a tyranny which makes reforms without violence impossible, and should have only one aim, that is, to bring about a state of affairs which makes reforms without violence possible.Collection: Should Have
The difference between the amoeba and Einstein is that, although both make use of the method of trial and error elimination, the amoeba dislikes erring while Einstein is intrigued by it.Collection: Science
. . . it seems to me certain that more people are killed out of righteous stupidity than out of wickedness.Collection: People
We hate the very idea that our own ideas may be mistaken, so we cling dogmatically to our conjectures.Collection: Hate
I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truthCollection: Effort
It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.Collection: Freedom
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.Collection: Freedom
The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.Collection: Heaven
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.Collection: Past
If we wish our civilization to survive we must break with the habit of deference to great men.Collection: Men
We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.Collection: Names
The influence (for good or ill) of Plato's work is immeasurable. Western thought, one might say, has been Platonic or anti-Platonic, but hardly ever non-Platonic.Collection: Plato
Our belief in any particular natural law cannot have a safer basis than our unsuccessful critical attempts to refute it.Collection: Law
No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from itCollection: Inspirational
The scientific tradition is distinguished from the pre-scientific tradition by having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its theories; but it also passes on a critical attitude towards them.Collection: Attitude
It must be possible for an empirical system to be refuted by experience.Collection: Experience
The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error.Collection: Inspirational
Psychologism is, I believe, correct only in so far as it insists upon what may be called 'methodological individualism' as opposed to 'methodological collectivism'; it rightly insists that the 'behaviour' and the 'actions' of collectives, such as states or social groups, must be reduced to the behaviour and to the actions of human individuals. But the belief that the choice of such an individualist method implies the choice of a psychological method is mistaken.Collection: Mistake
It is the rule which says that the other rules of scientific procedure must be designed in such a way that they do not protect any statement in science against falsification.Collection: Science
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.Collection: Rays
Definitions.... are never really needed, and rarely of any useCollection: Use
The method of science depends on our attempts to describe the world with simple theories: theories that are complex may become untestable, even if they happen to be true. Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification-the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.Collection: Art
The history of science is everywhere speculative. It is a marvelous hiatory. It makes you proud to be a human being.Collection: Science
But some of these theories are so bold that they can clash with reality: they are the testable theories of science. And when they clash, then we know that there is a reality; something that can inform us that our ideas are mistaken.Collection: Science
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.Collection: Attitude
Now this principle of induction cannot be a purely logical truth like a tautology or an analytic statement. . . .Collection: Truth
With regards to political enemies Plato had a kill-and-banish principle. ... In interpreting it , modern-day Platonists are clearly disturbed by it, even as they make elaborate attempts to defend Plato.Collection: Plato
[The aim of science is] to explain what so far has taken to be an explicans, such as a law of nature. The task of empirical science constantly renews itself. We may go on forever, proceeding to explanations of a higher and higher universality.Collection: Taken
To give a causal explanation of an event means to deduce a statement which describes it, using as premises of the deduction one or more universal laws, together with certain singular statements, the initial conditions ... We have thus two different kinds of statement, both of which are necessary ingredients of a complete causal explanation.Collection: Mean
Almost everyone... seems to be quite sure that the differences between the methodologies of history and of the natural sciences are vast. For, we are assured, it is well known that in the natural sciences we start from observation and proceed by induction to theory. And is it not obvious that in history we proceed very differently? Yes, I agree that we proceed very differently. But we do so in the natural sciences as well.Collection: Science
But it is certainly not possible to insist on one hand that the formalism is complete and to insist on the other hand that its application to 'the actual' actually demands a step which cannot be derived from it.Collection: Science
It is not intuitive ease I am after, but rather a point of view which is sufficiently definite to clear up some difficulties, and to be criticized in rational terms. (Bohr's complementarity cannot be so criticized, I fear; it can only be accepted or denounced - perhaps as being ad hoc, or as being irrational, or as being hopelessly vague.)Collection: Science
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.Collection: Order