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Andrei Sakharov

Andrei Sakharov Books

Nuclear Physicist, Human Rights Activist

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“What I learned was more than sufficient to impress upon me the horror, the real danger, and the utter insanity of thermonuclear warfare, which threatens everyone on earth. Our reports, and the conferences where we discussed a strategic thermonuclear strike on a potential enemy, transformed the unthinkable and monstrous into a subject for detailed investigation and calculation ... I could not stop thinking about this, and I came to realize that the technical, military, and economic problems are secondary; the fundamental issues are political and ethical. Gradually, subconsciously, I was approaching an irrevocable step—a wide-ranging public statement on war and peace and other global issues.”

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“International affairs must be completely permeated with scientific methodology and a democratic spirit, with a fearless weighing of all facts, views, and theories, with maximum publicity of ultimate and intermediate goals, and with a consistency of principles.”

FactsSpiritGoalViewsPrinciplesTheoryUltimateDemocraticAffairInternationalFearlessConsistencyMaximumPublicityMethodologyWeighingInternational Affairs
Book:Progress, coexistence, and intellectual freedom
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“Nothing threatens freedom of the personality and the meaning of life like war, poverty, terror. But there are also indirect and only slightly more remote dangers. One of these is the stupefaction of man (the "gray mass," to use the cynical term of bourgeois prognosticators) by mass culture with its intentional or commercially motivated lowering of intellectual level and content, with its stress on entertainment or utilitarianism, and with its carefully protective censorship.”

MenWarUseCultureTermLevelsPovertyDangerPersonalityMassIntellectualStressTerrorEntertainmentMeaning Of LifeGrayMotivatedCynicalCensorshipProtectiveBourgeoisIndirectUtilitarianismMass Culture
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“We regard as 'scientific' a method based on deep analysis of facts, theories, and views, presupposing unprejudiced, unfearing open discussion and conclusions. The complexity and diversity of all the phenomena of modern life, the great possibilities and dangers linked with the scientific-technical revolution and with a number of social tendencies demand precisely such an approach, as has been acknowledged in a number of official statements.”

Has BeensFactsScienceSocialViewsNumbersModernDangerPossibilityTheoryRevolutionDemandDiversityApproachAccountsRegardMethodStatementsTendenciesConclusionDiscussionAnalysisComplexityOfficialsLinkedModern Life
Book:Progress, coexistence, and intellectual freedom
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“I regard the death penalty as a savage and immoral institution that undermines the moral and legal foundations of society. I reject the notion that the death penalty has any essential deterrent effect on potential offenders. I am convinced that the contrary is true - that savagery begets only savagery.”

MoralEffectsEssentialsRegardInstitutionsFoundationNotionConvincedContraryRejectsSavagesPenaltiesImmoralDeath PenaltyBegetsOffendersSavageryDeterrent
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“Intellectual freedom is essential -- freedom to obtain and distribute information, freedom for open-minded and unfearing debate and freedom from pressure by officialdom and prejudices. Such freedom of thought is the only guarantee against an infection of people by mass myths, which, in the hands of treacherous hypocrites and demagogues, can be transformed into bloody dictatorship.”

PeopleHandsPoliticalFreedomInformationEssentialsMassIntellectualPrejudicePressureMythDebatePropagandaGuaranteesTransformedDictatorshipBloodyPhysicistHypocriteOpen MindedFreedom Of ThoughtInfectionTreacherousDissidentsDemagogueryIntellectual FreedomAccess To InformationDemagogy
Book:Progress, coexistence, and intellectual freedom
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