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Quote by Massimo Pigliucci

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Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk

This book delves into the principles of scientific inquiry and provides readers with the tools to discern genuine scientific research from misleading or false claims. more

Author

Massimo Pigliucci
Massimo Pigliucci

Massimo Pigliucci is an Italian-American philosopher, scientist, and writer. Born on January 16, 1964, in Italy, he currently serves as a professor in the United States. Professor Pigliucci's research areas include the philosophy of science, cognitive science, and the history of philosophy. His works cover a range of topics from scientific methodology to science popularization. more

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“1. Human beings meet their needs by using the resources in their environment. 2. Human beings have a limited knowledge of their environment. 3. Human beings have the ability to learn and remember so their knowledge of their environment increases over time. 4. As human knowledge of the environment increases, new ways of meeting human needs become available. 5. If the news ways of meeting human needs are better than the old ways of meeting human needs they will be adopted and the old ways discarded. 6. The adoption of new ways of meeting human needs constitutes social and cultural change in itself, but also leads to further social and cultural change. 7. The order of discovery of new means of meeting human needs follows a particular path from that which is most easily discovered to that which is more difficult to discover. Many discoveries require prior discoveries before the discovery can take place. This means there is a necessary order in the discoveries that constitute and cause social and cultural change. 8. The particular order in the discoveries, means social and cultural change occurs in a particular order, so that the sequence of social and cultural change is inevitable and is rationally understandable. All of the above statements appear to be obviously correct. If they are then the study of social and cultural history can be considered to be a science in the same way as biological evolution is considered to be a science. Social and cultural change derived from increasing human knowledge is not random and so can be scientifically understood. We can not predict the future of social and cultural change as we do not know what future discoveries we will make. This is analogous to biological evolution where changes in living species are unpredictable as we do not know what changes will occur in the environment of those species. However biological evolution does make changes in living species rationally understandable, just as an analysis of the order of discovery of the human environment makes social and cultural change rationally understandable.”

Karl MarxCultural EvolutionPhilosophy Of HistoryKarl PopperHistoricismMacrohistoryMacrosociology
Author:Rochelle Forrester
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“Changes in human knowledge causes changes in technology and through the effect that technology has on the social and cultural systems of a society, the change in human knowledge will affect all elements in that society. Changes in human knowledge may also directly affect the social and cultural systems in human society. Ideas such as biological evolution and cultural relativity have affected human society, without producing any technological innovations. Human history in all its elements will be effected by the increase in knowledge that gradually accumulates in human culture.”

Karl MarxTechnological ChangeCultural EvolutionPhilosophy Of HistoryKarl PopperHistoricismHistorical ChangeBig HistoryMacrohistoryMacrosociology
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“But the approach to truth is not easy. There is only one way towards it, the way through error. Only through our errors can we learn; and only he will learn who is ready to appreciate and even to cherish the errors of others as stepping stones towards truth, and who searches for his own errors: who tries to find them, since only when he has become aware of them can he free himself from them.”

TruthKnowledgeErrorKarl Popper
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“Race and religion have been deliberately conflated. All the intolerant have to do is say that it’s racist, or politically incorrect, or antisemitic, to challenge them, and the cowed liberals immediately all fall into line like the craven little poodles they are. The one thing the fascists can bank on is that if they play the race card, or any other minority card, they gain instant and total immunity. All the useful idiots of liberalism will rally around them and support them. But all intelligent Westerners should see through the scam. Islam is not, and never will be, a race. It has nothing to do with race. It’s a totalitarian system trying to take over the world, and everyone has the right and indeed duty to oppose it.”

ReligionRaceWestIslamIntoleranceMulticulturalismIdentity PoliticsLiberalsKarl Popper
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