#i

Our craving for generality has [as one] source … our preoccupation with the method of science. I mean the method of reducing the explanation of natural phenomena to the smallest possible number of primitive natural laws; and, in mathematics, of unifying the treatment of different topics by using a generalization. Philosophers constantly see the method of science before their eyes, and are irresistibly tempted to ask and answer in the way science does. This tendency is the real source of metaphysics, and leads the philosopher into complete darkness. I want to say here that it can never be our job to reduce anything to anything, or to explain anything. Philosophy really is “purely descriptive. ↗

— Ludwig Wittgenstein

#metaphilosophy #philosophy #science #the-blue-book #wittgenstein

Il y a les sachants et les savants: c'est la mémoire qui fait les uns, c'est la philosophie qui fait les autres. La philosophie ne s'apprend pas; la philosophie est la réunion des sciences acquises au génie qui les applique. ↗

— Alexandre Dumas

#philosophy #science

The plural of anecdote is not data. ↗

— Mark Sageman

#data #evidence #science #scientific-method #science

This was not guilt: guilt is what you feel when you have done something wrong. What I felt was shame: I was what was wrong. ↗

— Atul Gawande

#shame #science

If you ever find yourself coming out of a time machine, run. Run away as fast you can. Don't stop. Don't try to talk. Nothing good can come out of it." narrator Charles Yu, not author Charles Yu p19 ↗

— Charles Yu

#minor-universe- #science

I will argue that every scrap of biological diversity is priceless, to be learned and cherished, and never to be surrendered without a struggle. ↗

— E.O. Wilson

#science

As for peace, it was never free and laws were made to be broken. Peacemaker or lawbreaker, someone, somewhere always paid the price no matter what side of the words they were on. ↗

— Virginia McKevitt

#adventure-stories #fantasy #fiction #mystery #paranormal-romance

Suppose whatever we can recognize we can find. We can if P=NP. ↗

— Lance Fortnow

#science-fiction #science

CURIOSITY DEMANDS THAT WE ASK QUESTIONS, THAT WE TRY TO PUT THINGS TOGETHER AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS MULTITUDE OF ASPECTS AS PERHAPS RESULTING FROM THE ACTION OF A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER OF ELEMENTAL THINGS AND FORCES ACTING IN AN INFINITE VARIETY OF COMBINATIONS ↗

— Richard P. Feynman

#particles #physics #science #science

His work seems to confirm my old axiom: it is useless to try to keep the whole body alive. ↗

— Adolfo Bioy Casares

#science #the-body #science