14 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
The Scientific is Sacred Because Truth is Sacred
Why do we separate the scientific, which is just a way of searching for truth, from what we hold sacred, which are those truths that inspire love and awe? Science is nothing more than a never-ending search for truth. What could be more profoundly sacred than that? I'm sure most of what we all hold dearest and cherish most, believing at this very moment, will be revealed at some future time to be merely a product of our age and our history and our understanding of reality. So here’s this pro... 1 
notes
notes19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science and Education Feed One Another
The progress of the sciences secures the progress of the art of instruction, which again
accelerates in its turn that of the sciences; and this reciprocal influence, the action of
which is incessantly increased, must be ranked in the number of the most prolific and
powerful causes of the improvement of the human race. At present, a young man,
upon finishing his studies and quitting our schools, may know more of the principles
of mathematics than Newton acquired by profound study, or discovere... 1 notes
notesProgress in one secures progress in the other.
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 notes
notesCondorcet sees our knowledge growing exponentially into the deepest minutia.
06 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
Knowledge Increases
The progress of the sciences secures the progress of the art of instruction, which again accelerates in its turn that of the sciences; and this reciprocal influence, the action of which is incessantly increased, must be ranked in the number of the most prolific and powerful causes of the improvement of the human race. At present, a young man, upon finishing his studies and quitting our schools, may know more of the principles of mathematics than Newton acquired by profound study, or discovere...
1 By standing on the shoulders of giants, the college-graduate can know more than Newton learned in a lifetime through all his hard work and discovery.
19 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
The Opposite of a Deep Truth is Also a Deep Truth
The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called 'deep truths', are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth. Folksonomies: philosophy truth
Folksonomies: philosophy truth
1 notes
notesQuote from Niels Bohr.
18 SEP 2011 by TGAW
Vonnegut on New Journalism - Thucydides
Thucydides is the first New Journalist I know anything about. He was a celebrity who put himself at the center of the truths he was trying to tell, and he guessed when he had to, and he thought it worthwhile to be charming and entertaining. He was a good teacher. He did not wish to put his students to sleep with the truth, and he meant to put the truth in strikingly human terms, so his students would remmeber.Folksonomies: vonnegut journalism
Folksonomies: vonnegut journalism
1 notes
notes14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Logic and Math are the Rules We Work Within
The principles of logic and mathematics are true universally simply because we never allow them to be anything else. And the reason for this is that we cannot abandon them without contradicting ourselves, without sinning against the rules which govern the use of language, and so making our utterances self-stultifying. In other words, the truths of logic and mathematics are analytic propositions or tautologies.Folksonomies: mathematics logic
Folksonomies: mathematics logic
1 notes
notesThey cannot be anything other than universally true.
29 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Program Yourself With the Truth
What memes should you program yourself with, now that you have the chance? The second-most-popular answer (after punting) is: With the truth. It's hard to see how there could be any problem with programming yourself with memes that are true. But remember Alfred North Whitehead: all truths are half-truths.
There are several problems with the strategy-meme Program myself with the truth. In the first place, you can't ever know the whole truth of the universe. Your brain doesn't have enough stor... 1 notes
notes...but it's not that easy.
19 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Opening Text from the Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endo... 1 notes
notesAffirming equality according to the laws of nature.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Science is a Multi-National Culture
Ethnocentrism, xenophobia and nationalism are these days rife in
many parts of the world. Government repression of unpopular
views is still widespread. False or misleading memories are
inculcated. For the defenders of such attitudes, science is disturbing.
It claims access to truths that are largely independent of
ethnic or cultural biases. By its very nature, science transcends
national boundaries. Put scientists working in the same field of
study together in a room and even if they share no...
1 Scientists will find a way to work together on a common subject of investigation despite their cultural differences.
