53 quotes
Facts are constituted by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of progress.
Against Method (1975)
A free society is a society in which all traditions have equal rights and equal access to the centers of power.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
In a war a totalitarian state has a free hand.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
First-world science is one science among many; by claiming to be more it ceases to be an instrument of research and turns into a (political) pressure group.
Against Method (1975)
Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise: theoretical anarchism is more humanitarian and more likely to encourage progress than its law-and-order alternatives.
Against Method (1975)
The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution.
Against Method (1975)
At all times man approached his surroundings with wide open senses and a fertile intelligence, at all times he made incredible discoveries, at all times we can learn from his ideas.
Against Method (1975)
Not only are facts and theories in constant disharmony, they are never as neatly separated as everyone makes them out to be.
Against Method (1975)
Rationalism... is a secularized form of the belief in the power of the word of God.
Against Method (1975)
Ultimate Reality, if such an entity can be postulated, is ineffable.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
The semblance of absolute truth is nothing but absolute conformism.
Against Method (1975)
Arguments hardly affect the faithful- their beliefs have an entirely different foundation.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
Results from a given approach are "facts" as long as the approach fits the group or the tradition that is being addressed
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
All religion may be centered around a generally good idea, however, this has not stopped its adherents from acting like bastards
Farewell to Reason (1987)
Theories are abandoned and superseded by more fashionable accounts long before they have had an opportunity to show their virtues.
Against Method (1975)
This is how empirical "evidence" may be created by a procedure which quotes as its justification the very same evidence it has Produced.
Against Method (1975)
Rational discourse is only one way of presenting and examining an issue and by no means the best. Our new intellectuals are not aware of its limitations and of the nature of the things outside.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
No single theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain
Against Method (1975)
The assertion...that there is no knowledge outside science – extra scientiam nulla salus – is nothing but another and most convenient fairy-tale.
Against Method (1975)
Experience arises together with theoretical assumptions not before them, and an experience without theory is just as incomprehensible as is (allegedly) a theory without experience.
Against Method (1975)