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Quote by Anthony Standen

“Such instances of the almost infinite unpredictability of man are known to social scientists, but they are no more affected by them than the asylum inmate is by being told that he is not Napoleon.”

Quote by Anthony Standen

Book:Science is a sacred cow

Work

Science is a sacred cow

This book delves into the significance of scientific knowledge and its influence on human progress, examining the reverence often attributed to science while also critiquing its limitations and potential for misuse. more

Author

Anthony Standen

Anthony Standen was an accomplished British author known for his profound insights into history and culture. His works covered a wide range of historical themes from the Middle Ages to the modern era, celebrated for their unique narrative style and attention to detail. more

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“Astrology is a disease, not a science... It is a tree under the shadow of which all sorts of superstitions thrive. ... Only fools and charlatans lend value to it.”

Science Values Tree Fool Disease Shadow Accounts Thrive Superstitions Astrology Charlatans

Author:Maimonides

“Science ... must be absorbed in order to inculcate that wonderful humility before the facts of nature that comes from close attention to a textbook, and that unwillingness to learn from Authority that comes from making almost verbatim lecture notes and handing them back to the professor.”

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Book:Science is a sacred cow

Source: Science is a sacred cow

“Science when well-digested is nothing but good sense and reason.”

Wells Reason Science Accounts Good Sense

Book:Moral reflections, sentences and maxims of Francis, duc de la Rochefoucauld

Source: Moral reflections, sentences and maxims of Francis, duc de la Rochefoucauld

“It is true that physics gives a wonderful training in precise, logical thinking-about physics. It really does depend upon accurate reproducible experiments, and upon framing hypotheses with the greatest possible freedom from dogmatic prejudice. And if these were the really important things in life, physics would be an essential study for everybody.”

“But although in theory physicists realize that their conclusions are ... not certainly true, this ... does not really sink into their consciousness. Nearly all the time ... they ... act as if Science were indisputably True, and what's more, as if only science were true.... Any information obtained otherwise than by the scientific method, although it may be true, the scientists will call "unscientific," using this word as a smear word, by bringing in the connotation from its original [Greek] meaning, to imply that the information is false, or at any rate slightly phony.”

Ifs May Doe Science Realizing Consciousness Information Theory Scientist Originals Method Rate Conclusion Being True Greek Physicist Phony Scientific Method Connotation

Author:Anthony Standen

“I had made considerable advance ... in calculations on my favourite numerical lunar theory, when I discovered that, under the heavy pressure of unusual matters (two transits of Venus and some eclipses) I had committed a grievous error in the first stage of giving numerical value to my theory. My spirit in the work was broken, and I have never heartily proceeded with it since.”

Giving Firsts Made Two Matter Science Spirit Values Stage Theory Broken Moon Pressure Errors Committed Heavy Unusual Favourite Calculations Eclipse Venus

Author:George Biddell Airy

“The theory that gravitational attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distance leads by remorseless logic to the conclusion that the path of a planet should be an ellipse .... It is this logical thinking that is the real meat of the physical sciences. The social scientist keeps the skin and throws away the meat.... His theorems no more follow from his postulates than the hunches of a horse player follow logically from the latest racing news. The result is guesswork clad in long flowing robes of gobbledygook.”

“If this "critical openminded attitude" ... is wanted, the question at once arises, Is it science that should be studied in order to achieve it? Why not study law? A judge has to do everything that a scientist is exhorted to do in the way of withholding judgment until all the facts are in, and then judging impartially on the merits of the case as well as he can. ... Why not a course in Sherlock Holmes? The detectives, or at least the detective-story writers, join with the scientists in excoriating "dogmatic prejudice, lying, falsification of facts, and data, and willful fallacious reasoning."”

“Talent wears well, genius wears itself out; talent drives a snug brougham in fact; genius, a sun-chariot in fancy.”

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Book:Chandos: A Novel : in Two Volumes

Source: Chandos: A Novel : in Two Volumes

“Wherever man has left the stamp of mind on brute-matter; whether we designate his work as structure, texture, or mixture, mechanical or chymical; whether the result be a house, a ship, a garment, a piece of glass, or a metallic implement, these memorials of economy and invention will always be worthy of the attention of the Archaeologist.”

Source: Essays on Art and Archaeology