“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
“Psychoanalytic theory is the most stupendous intellectual confidence trick of the twentieth century and a terminal product as well-something akin to a dinosaur or zeppelin in the history of ideas, a vast structure of radically unsound design and with no posterity.” WellsIdeasScienceHistoryCenturyDesignProductsTheoryIntellectualStructureTricksTwentieth CenturyPosterityDinosaursZeppelinsTerminalPsychoanalytic Author:Peter Medawar
“How have people come to be taken in by The Phenomenon of Man? We must not underestimate the size of the market for works of this kind [pseudoscience/'woo'], for philosophy-fiction. Just as compulsory primary education created a market catered for by cheap dailies and weeklies, so the spread of secondary and latterly tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.” PeopleMenWellsKindHas BeensPhilosophyScienceFictionTakenTasteCapacitySizePopulationSpreadEducatedPrimariesPhenomenonUnderestimatePseudoscienceCompulsoryScholarlyCompulsory EducationPrimary Education Author:Peter Medawar
“It is the great glory as well as the great threat of science that everything which is in principle possible can be done if the intention to do it is sufficiently resolute.” IfsWellsDonePrinciplesGloryThreatIntentionResolute Book:The Threat and the Glory: Reflections on Science and Scientists Source: The Threat and the Glory: Reflections on Science and Scientists
“All scientists know of colleagues whose minds are so well equipped with the means of refutation that no new idea has the temerity to seek admittance. Their contribution to science is accordingly very small.” KnowsMindWellsMeanIdeasScienceScientistContributionNew IdeasColleaguesRefutationAdmittance Author:Peter Medawar
“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
