Feyerabend Science Quotes & Sayings

I am trying to get the hang of this new fangled writing machine, but I am not making a shining success of it. However, this is the first attempt I have ever made & yet I perceive I shall soon & easily acquire a fine facility in its use ... The machine has several virtues. I believe it will print faster than I can write. One may lean back in his chair & work it. It piles an awful stack of words on one page. It don't muss things or scatter ink blots around. Of course it saves paper. — Mark Twain

Each man for himself in that desert of egoism which is called life. — Stendhal

Science is essentially an anarchic enterprise: theoretical anarchism is more humanitarian and more likely to encourage progress than its law-and-order alternatives. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

It is the cruelest of all ironies that moderns imagine themselves to be (abstractly understood) "individuals," because in actuality moderns are "types," abstracted and self-abstractive victims of a process of stereotyping that afflicts even would-be rebels and anarchists. — Kenny Smith

I've lost so many people. Some I left on purpose and never looked back. Some were taken from me, and I never said good-bye. — Ann Aguirre

It is important that politicians defend their ability to act without fear or favour, and it is in the public interest that they hold ministers and public servants to account. — Jeremy Corbyn

I love metaphor. It provides two loaves where there seems to be one. Sometimes it throws in a load of fish. — Bernard Malamud

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be one of so many, to have not just parents and siblings but cousins and aunts and uncles, an entire tribe to claim as your own. Maybe you would feel lost in the crowd. Or sheltered by it. Whatever the case, one things was for sure: like it or not, you'd never be alone. — Sarah Dessen

No man ever truly possesses a woman, anyhow," said Gidas moodily. "He has her body for a time if he's lucky, but only the most fleeting glimpse into her soul." Gidas was a poet, or wanted to be. — Guy Gavriel Kay

Science is neither a single tradition, nor the best tradition there is, except for people who have become accustomed to its presence, its benefits and its disadvantages. In a democracy it should be separated from the state just as churches are now separated from the state. — Paul Feyerabend

It is often assumed that science starts from facts and eschews counter-factual theories. Nothing could be further from the truth. What is one of the basic assumptions of the scientific world-view? That the variety of events that surrounds us is held together by a deeper unity. — Paul Feyerabend

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. — Paul Feyerabend

It has been demonstrated that freemason - in an operative context - is a contraction of 'freestone mason' ... The earliest printed use so far traced comes in The Pilgrimage of Perfection - usually attributed to William Bonde - printed in 1536 by Wynkyn de Worde. — John Hamill

A firm faith in the universal providence of God is the solution of all earthly troubles. — B. B. Warfield

Every profession has an ideology and a drive for power that goes far beyond its achievements and it is the task of democracy to keep this ideology and this drive under control. Science is here no different from other institutions. — Paul Feyerabend

There is no "scientific worldview" just as there is no uniform enterprise "science"- except in the minds of metaphysicians, school masters, and scientists blinded by the achievements of their own particular niche ... There is no objective principle that could direct us away from the supermarket "religion" or the supermarket "art" toward the more modern, and much more expensive supermarket "science." Besides, the search for such guidance would be in conflict with the idea of individual responsibility which allegedly is an important ingredient of a "rational" or scientific age. — Paul Feyerabend

An anarchist is like an undercover agent who plays the game of Reason in order to undercut the authority of Reason (Truth, Honesty, Justice and so on). — Paul Karl Feyerabend

In a democracy scientific institutions, research programmes, and suggestions must therefore be subjected to public control, there must be a separation of state and science just as there is a separation between state and religious institutions, and science should be taught as one view among many and not as the one and only road to truth and reality. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

Love of Truth is one of the strongest motives for replacing what really happens by a streamlined account or, to express it in a less polite manner
love of truth is one of the strongest motives for deceiving oneself and others. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

Copernicanism and other essential ingredients of modern science survived only because reason was frequently overruled in their past. — Paul Feyerabend

Events and developments, such as ... the Copernican Revolution, ... occurred only because some thinkers either decided not to be bound by certain "obvious" methodological rules, or because they unwittingly broke them. — Paul Feyerabend

Science is not sacrosanct. The mere fact that it exists, is admired, has results is not sufficient for making it a measure of excellence. Modern science arose from global objections against earlier views and rationalism itself, the idea that there are general rules and standards for conducting our affairs, affairs of knowledge included, arose from global objections to common sense. — Paul Feyerabend

I have a fun clause in my contract. If I'm not having fun, I can leave. — James Burrows

A short saying often contains much wisdom. — Sophocles

On the way, I shared the backseat of Feyerabend's little sports car with the inflatable raft he kept there in case an 8-point earthquake came while he was on the Bay Bridge. — Lee Smolin

Humane science must be adapted to the requirements of a balanced and rewarding life. — Paul Feyerabend

The New York voice reflects its diversity, its foreignness, and, inevitably, the sense of superiority New Yorkers feel or come to feel. It says, without saying, We Know. — Marya Mannes

Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise ... — Paul Feyerabend

Do something you would be proud to have in your obituary, but not something that will haunt you until that day.
Live for now, hope for later, and remember then.
As you grow older always remember to never fully grow up.
This is real.
Stand up and look at the skin you're in.
Don't let the others turn you green, think about it, and make it how you want.
Now you're done reading this, do something that make to make who you are make you happy. — Audrey Regan

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything - diseases, spiders ... and people getting tired of me. — Taylor Swift

We need a dream-world in order to discover the features of the real world we think we inhabit. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

There is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or other. It becomes evident that such violations are not accidental events, they are not results of insufficient knowledge or of inattention which might have been avoided. On the contrary, we see that they are necessary for progress. — Paul Feyerabend

A scientist, an artist, a citizen is not like a child who needs papa methodology and mama rationality to give him security and direction; he can take care of himself, for he is the inventor not only of laws, theories, pictures, plays, forms of music, ways of dealing with his fellow man, institutions but also of entire world views, he is the inventor of entire forms of life. — Paul Karl Feyerabend

Today science prevails not because of its comparative merits, but because the show has been rigged in its favour ... It reigns supreme because some past successes have led to institutional measures (education; role of experts; role of power groups such as the AMA) that prevent a comeback of the rivals. — Paul Feyerabend

Science is much closer to myth than a scientific philosophy is prepared to admit. It is one of the many forms of thought that have been developed by man, and not necessarily the best. It is conspicuous, noisy, and impudent, but it is inherently superior only for those who have already decided in favour of a certain ideology, or who have accepted it without ever having examined its advantages and its limits. — Paul Feyerabend

Without a constant misuse of language there cannot be any discovery, any progress — Paul Karl Feyerabend

One might get the impression that I recommend a new methodology which replaces induction by counterinduction and uses a multiplicity of theories, metaphysical views, fairy tales, instead of the customary pair theory/observation. This impression would certainly be mistaken. My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is rather to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits. — Paul Feyerabend

First-world science is one science among many; by claiming to be more it ceases to be an instrument of research and turns into a (political) pressure group. — Paul Feyerabend

Everywhere science is enriched by unscientific methods and unscientific results, ... the separation of science and non-science is not only artificial but also detrimental to the advancement of knowledge. If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a small selection of them. — Paul Feyerabend