53 quotes
Those who violate the rules of a language do not enter new territory; they leave the domain of meaningful discourse. Even facts in these circumstances dissolve, because they are shaped by the language and subjected to its limitations.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
The validity of usefulness, adequacy of popular standards can be tested only by research that violates them.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
Humane science must be adapted to the requirements of a balanced and rewarding life.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
Without a constant misuse of language, there cannot be any discovery, any progress.
Against Method (1975)
A Universal Good should reflect the reality of the individual benefits that are collected under its name, not the other way around.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
Early Chinese thinkers had taken variety at face value. They had favored diversification and collected anomalies instead of trying to explain them away.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
I say that Auschwitz is an extreme manifestation of an attitude that still thrives in our midst.
Farewell to Reason (1987)
These are the assumptions we must make to give the questions the polemical force they are supposed to have. Not a single one of them stands up to closer examination.
Against Method (1975)
My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is, rather, to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits.
Against Method (1975)
I do not see why I should be polite to tyrants, who slobber of humanitarianism and think only of their own petty interests.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
An anarchist is like an undercover agent who plays the game of Reason in order to undercut the authority of Reason (Truth, Honesty, Justice, and so on).
Against Method (1975)
Its "success" is entirely man-made.
Against Method (1975)
The sciences of today are business enterprises run on business principles. Research in large institutes is not guided by Truth and Reason but by the most rewarding fashion, and the great minds of today increasingly turn to where the money is - which means military matters.
Farewell to Reason (1987)
Counter-induction is... both a fact—science could not exist without it—and a legitimate and much needed move in the game of science.
Against Method (1975)
Many "educated citizens" take it for granted that reality is what scientists say it is and that other opinions may be recorded, but need not be taken seriously.
Conquest of Abundance (2001)
Taking experimental results and observations for granted and putting the burden of proof on the theory means taking the observational ideology for granted without having ever examined it.
Against Method (1975)
Most scientists today are devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes "scientific progress" in many areas.
How To Defend Society Against Science (1975)
Traditions are neither good nor bad, they simply are... Rationality is not an arbiter of traditions, it is itself a tradition or an aspect of a tradition.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
Mathematical Reasoning is not only exact; it has its own criteria of reality
Science in a Free Society (1978)
One knows quite well that harmony can be a harmony of appearances
Science in a Free Society (1978)