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Ian Hacking

Ian Hacking Biography

Philosopher

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“Labels such as ‘‘the culture wars,’’ ‘‘the science wars,’’ or ‘‘the Freud wars’’ are now widely used to refer to some of the disagreements that plague contemporary intellectual life ... But I would like to register a gentle protest. Metaphors influence the mind in many unnoticed ways. The willingness to describe fierce disagreement in terms of the metaphors of war makes the very existence of real wars seem more natural, more inevitable, more a part of the human condition. It also betrays us into an insensibility toward the very idea of war, so that we are less prone to be aware of how totally disgusting real wars really are.”

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Book:The Social Construction of What?
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“Much early alchemy seems to have been adventure. You heated and mixed and burnt and pounded and to see what would happen. An adventure might suggest an hypothesis that can subsequently be tested, but adventure is prior to theory.”

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Book:The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference
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“From any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive. One must have the right ideas.”

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Book:The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference
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“We favor hypotheses for their simplicity and explanatory power, much as the architect of the world might have done in choosing which possibility to create.”

WorldDoneMightPossibilitySimplicityFavorsArchitectHypothesis
Book:The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference
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“Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because 'experimental method' used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own.”

WorldUseRealityScienceUsedNamesTechnologyMovementTheoryMethodPhilosopherExperimentsUsed To BeOddRepresentationExperimentationScientific MethodInitiateExperimental ScienceUse Of Knowledge
Book:Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science
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“The bad player is the one who tries to calculate and play with the odds, as if his game, his life, were one of a large number of games. To do so is at best to succumb to another necessity, the necessity of large numbers. The good player does not fool himself, and accepts that there is exactly one chance, which produces by chance the necessity and even the purpose that he experiences.”

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Book:The Taming of Chance
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“The important thing is to be able to understand anyone who has something useful to say. - There is a general moral here. Be very careful and very clear about what you say. But do not be dogmatic about your own language. Be prepared to express any careful thought in the language your audience will understand. And be prepared to learn from someone who talks a language with which you are not familiar.”

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Book:An Introduction to Probability and Inductive Logic Desk Examination Edition
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“Why should there be the method of science? There is not just one way to build a house, or even to grow tomatoes. We should not expect something as motley as the growth of knowledge to be strapped to one methodology.”

WayShouldScienceHouseGrowsGrowthMethodMathPhysicsOne WayJust OneTomatoesMethodology
Book:Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science
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