“Scientific discovery is a private event, and the delight that accompanies it, or the despair of finding it illusory, does not travel. One scientist may get great satisfaction from another's work and admire it deeply; it may give him great intellectual pleasure; but it gives him no sense of participation in the discovery, it does not carry him away, and his appreciation of it does not depend on his being carried away. If it were otherwise the inspirational origin of scientific discovery would never have been in doubt.” IfsGivingMayDoeHas BeensPleasureDoubtEventsDependsDespairFindingsIntellectualDiscoveryScientistSatisfactionDelightAppreciationAdmireParticipationAccompanyIllusoryCarried AwayScientific Discovery Book:The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science Source: The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice and Other Classic Essays on Science
“To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive. Religious beliefs give a spurious spiritual dimension to tribal enmities.” GivingReasonSpiritualBeliefReligiousAtheismDegreesConvictionDimensionsDestructiveSubstitutesReligious BeliefEnmitySpiritual Dimensions Author:Peter Medawar
“Freudian psychoanalytical theory is a mythology that answers pretty well to Levi-Strauss's descriptions. It brings some kind of order into incoherence; it, too, hangs together, makes sense, leaves no loose ends, and is never (but never) at a loss for explanation. In a state of bewilderment it may therefore bring comfort and relief.... give its subject a new and deeper understanding of his own condition and of the nature of his relationship to his fellow men. A mythical structure will be built up around him which makes sense and is believable-in, regardless of whether or not it is true.” MenGivingWellsKindMayEndsStatesTogetherOrderUnderstandingNatureLossAnswersRelationshipConditionsSubjectsTheoryComfortBuiltFellowsStructureDeeperMythMythologyMake SenseExplanationReliefDescriptionFellow ManPsychoanalysisBelievableBewildermentDeeper UnderstandingIncoherenceLoose EndsBelievabilityLevi Strauss Author:Peter Medawar
“I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.” GivingTruthAgeAdviceArgumentScientistConvictionIntensityHypothesis Book:Advice to a young scientist Source: Advice to a young scientist
“If the task of scientific methodology is to piece together an account of what scientists actually do, then the testimony of biologists should be heard with specially close attention. Biologists work very close to the frontier between bewilderment and understanding. Biology is complex, messy and richly various, like real life; it travels faster nowadays than physics or chemistry (which is just as well, since it has so much farther to go), and it travels nearer to the ground. It should therefore give us a specially direct and immediate insight into science in the making.” IfsGivingShouldWellsRealTogetherScienceUnderstandingAttentionPiecesHeardDevelopmentTasksDirectScientistAccountsComplexesVariousInsightPhysicsReal LifeFasterBiologyChemistryTestimonyFrontiersMessyBiologistMethodologyBewilderment Book:Induction and intuition in scientific thought Source: Induction and intuition in scientific thought
