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"I
don't want to achieve
immortality through my work;
I want to achieve
immortality through not
dying" (WOODY ALLEN).
“Anyone who can
have a global view is a
philosopher, and anyone who
can’t isn’t" (PLATO, Republic, VII
537 c 7).
“If we must
philosophize we must
philosophize, and if we must
not philosophize we must
philosophize. In any case,
therefore, we must
philosophize. For, if
philosophy exists, we are
certainly bound to
philosophize since it
exists. If instead it does
not exist, also in that case
we are bound to investigate
why philosophy does not
exist. But investigating we
philosophize, for
investigation is the cause
of philosophy (ARISTOTLE, Protrepticus,
fr.424)”.
""In the manners and
customs of the schools,
universities, colleges and
similar institutions, which
are intended to house
scholars and cultivate
learning, everything is
found to be inimical to the
progress of the sciences.
For the readings and
exercises are so designed
that it would hardly occur
to anyone to think or
consider anything out of the
ordinary. And if perhaps
someone should have the
courage to use his liberty
of judgement, he would be
taking the task on himself
alone; he will get no useful
help from his colleagues.
And if he puts up with this
too, he will find that in
pursuing his career his
industry and largeness of
view will be no small
obstacle to him” (F. BACON,
Novum Organum,
I, Aphorism XC).
"Old
ideas give way slowly ...
They are habits,
predispositions, deeply
engrained attitudes of
aversion and preference.
Moreover, the conviction
persists ... that all the
questions that the human
mind has asked are
questions that can be
answered in terms of the
alternatives that the
questions themselves
present. But in fact
intellectual progress
usually occurs through
sheer abandonment of
questions together with
both of the alternatives
they assume - an
abandonment that results
from their decreasing
vitality and a change of
urgent interest. We do not
solve them: we get over
them. Old questions are
solved by disappearing,
evaporating, while new
questions corresponding to
the changed attitude of
endeavor and preference
take their place” (J. DEWEY, The
Influence of Darwinism on
Philosophy).
"The
attitude of most of you is
that you are the philosophers,
that the students are
not, ... that they must
be trained to repeat the
tricks after you, so that
sometimes in the future they
may perhaps be able to became
trainers themselves, modifying
the tricks a little here and
there (this is called
'original research'), and
being equally stern in the propagation of
their knowledge (this is
called ‘professional
conscience’). I am sorry,
but I see my task in an
entirely different light” (P. FEYERABEND, Letter
to the Director of the
Department of Philosophy,
26 Jan 1969).
“The fundamental
discoveries, such as those
of the laws of mechanics, of
chemical combination, of
evolution, on which
scientific advance
ultimately depends … always
entail the destruction of or
disintegration of old
knowledge before the new can
be created. … It is no
accident that bacteria were first understood
by a canal engineer, that
oxygen was isolated by a
Unitarian minister, that the
theory of infection was
established by a chemist,
the theory of heredity by a
monastic school teacher, and
the theory of evolution by a
man who was unfitted to be a
university instructor in
either botany or zoology. …
We need a Minister
of Disturbances, a regulated
source of annoyance; a
destroyer of routine, and
underminer of complacency,
an enfant terrible” (C. D.
DARLINGTON, The Conflict
of Society and Science,
1948).
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