SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
Liberal friendly quotes:
"Knowledge is Power."
-- Francis Bacon
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
-- Derek Bok, attributed
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data."
-- Arthur Conan Doyle, (Sherlock Holmes, Scandal in Bohemia, 1891)
"If I have seen further,… it is by standing upon
the shoulders of giants."
-- Isaac Newton, letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675/76
"Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially
simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible
to everyone."
-- Albert Einstein, The Evolution of Physics
"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with
problems longer."
-- Albert Einstein
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of
everyday thinking."
-- Albert Einstein, Out of My Later Years
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be
called research, would it?"
-- Albert Einstein
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field
of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the
Gods."
-- Albert Einstein
"The only source of knowledge is experience."
-- Albert Einstein
"Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn
and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing
a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected
connections between our starting points and its rich environment.
But the point from which we started out still exists and can be
seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our
broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous
way up."
-- Albert Einstein, The Evolution of Physics.
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by
age 18."
-- Albert Einstein
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any
simpler."
-- Albert Einstein
"We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking
if mankind is to survive."
-- Albert Einstein
"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects."
-- Will Rogers
"The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our
ignorance unfolds."
-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"The great tragedy of science -- the slaying of a beautiful
theory by an ugly fact."
-- T.H. Huxley, Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature.
"An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way
by gradually winning over and converting its opponents… What
does happen is that its opponents gradually die out, and that
the growing generation is familiarized with the ideas from the
beginning."
-- Max Planck
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics
are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of
doubts."
-- Bertrand Russell
A LIBERAL DECALOGUE By Bertrand Russell
"Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed
up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but
only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher,
I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows:
1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence,
for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your
husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument
and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is
unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are
always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious,
for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now
accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement,
for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies
a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient,
for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in
a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is
happiness."
-- The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell, 1944-1969, pp. 71-2
A Plan for the Improvement of English Spelling
by Mark Twain
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped
to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer
be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which "c" would be retained
would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later. Year 2
might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the
same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with
"i" and Iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear
with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12
or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.
Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi
ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz
ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud
hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.
And from the other side...
"The youthful brain should in general not be burdened with
things ninety-five percent of which it cannot use and hence forgets
again… In many cases, the material to be learned in the various
subjects is so swollen that only a fraction of it remains in the
head of the individual pupil, and only a fraction of this abundance
can find application, while on the other hand it is not adequate
for the man working and earning his living in a definite field."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 418.
"Knowledge above the average can be crammed into the average
man, but it remains dead, and in the last analysis sterile knowledge.
The result is a man who may be a living dictionary but nevertheless
falls down miserably in all special situations and decisive moments
in life."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 429.
"The folkish state must not adjust its entire educational
work primarily to the inoculation of mere knowledge, but to the
breeding of absolutely healthy bodies. The training of mental
abilities is only secondary. And here again, first place must
be taken by the development of character, especially the promotion
of will-power and determination, combined with the training of
joy in responsibility, and only in last place comes scientific
schooling."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 408.
"A people of scholars, if they are physically degenerate,
weak-willed and cowardly pacifists, will not storm the heavens,
indeed, they will not be able to safeguard their existence on
this earth."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 408.
"But it would be absolutely mistaken to regard a wealth of
theoretical knowledge as characteristic proof for the qualities
and abilities of a leader."
-- Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 580.
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