19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
The Projected Growth of the Sciences
It has never yet been supposed, that all the facts of nature, and all the means of acquiring precision in the computation and analysis of those facts, and all the connections of objects with each other, and all the possible combinations of ideas, can be exhausted by the human mind. The mere relations of magnitude, the combinations, quantity and extent of this idea alone, form already a system too immense for the mind of man ever to grasp the whole of it; a portion, more vast than that which h... 1 
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notesCondorcet sees our knowledge growing exponentially into the deepest minutia.
19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science as Power, Kept in Writing
In sedentary and peaceable societies, astronomy, medicine, the most simple notions of anatomy, the knowledge of plants and minerals, the first elements of the study of the phenomena of nature, acquired some improvement, or rather extended themselves by the mere influence of time, which, increasing the stock of observations, led, in a manner slow, but sure, to the easy and almost instant perception of some of the general consequences to which those observations were calculated to lead.
Meanwh... 1 notes
notesEarly scientists pursued science for power, and committed it in written form.
06 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Our Improvement Through Education is Limitless
It has never yet been supposed, that all the facts of nature, and all the means of acquiring precision in the computation and analysis of those facts, and all the connections of objects with each other, and all the possible combinations of ideas, can be exhausted by the human mind. The mere relations of magnitude, the combinations, quantity and extent of this idea alone, form already a system too immense for the mind of man ever to grasp the whole of it; a portion, more vast than that which h...
1 A vision of the future. Although we may never change physically or in our mental capacity, our innovations and amassing of knowledge will provide us with limitless potential for intellectual growth.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Questions About Freedom of Will are Meaningless
Not only are there meaningless questions, but many of the problems with which the human intellect has tortured itself turn out to be only 'pseudo problems,' because they can be formulated only in terms of questions which are meaningless. Many of the traditional problems of philosophy, of religion, or of ethics, are of this character. Consider, for example, the problem of the freedom of the will. You maintain that you are free to take either the right- or the left-hand fork in the road. I defy... 1 notes
notesIf you cannot test something objectively, it is a meaningless question.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Mental Power of Thinking Through Chemistry
Whilst chemical pursuits exalt the understanding, they do not depress the imagination or weaken genuine feeling; whilst they give the mind habits of accuracy, by obliging it to attend to facts, they like wise extend its analogies; and, though conversant with the minute forms of things, they have for their ultimate end the great and magnificent objects of Nature … And hence they are wonderfully suited to the progressive nature of the human intellect … It may be said of modern chemistry, that i...Become "conversant with the minute forms of things" and in a practical sense.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Humans Pay More Attention to Affirmatives, Biased Toward ...
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate. And t... 1 notes
notes...it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human intellect to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives; whereas it ought properly to hold itself indifferently disposed toward both alike.
