Be Optimistic
Science is making the world better. Keep your chin up and look forward to the exiting adventures it's bringing you.
Folksonomies: enlightenment optimism
Memes
09 JAN 2013
Humanists Do Not Fear Technology
As humanists who value human creativity and human reason and who have seen the benefits of science and technology, we are decidedly willing to take part in the new scientific and technological developments around us. We are encouraged rather than fearful about biotechnology, alternative energy, and information technology, and we recognize that attempts to reject these developments or to prevent their wide application will not stop them. Such efforts will merely place them in the hands of othe...
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They are cautiously optimistic about scientific progress.
16 AUG 2012
Benjamin Franklin on Future of Science
The rapid progress true science now makes occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon. It is impossible to imagine the Height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the Power of Man over Matter...Agriculture may diminish its Labour and double its Produce; all Diseases may, by sure means, be prevented or cured, not even excepting that of Old Age, and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian Standard. O that moral Science were in as fair a way of Improv...Folksonomies: prescience optimism
Folksonomies: prescience optimism
An optimistic vision of the future of man and a lament that he won't be able to see it.
06 AUG 2012
A Positive View of Human Progress
And how admirably calculated is this view of the human race, emancipated from its chains, released alike from the dominion of chance, as well as from that of the enemies of its progress, and advancing with a firm and indeviate step in the paths of truth, to console the philosopher lamenting the errors, the flagrant acts of injustice, the crimes with which the earth is still polluted? It is the contemplation of this prospect that rewards him for all his efforts to assist the progress of reason...Folksonomies: philosophy optimism
Folksonomies: philosophy optimism
If civilization is ever-improving, then the philosophe can take heart that all the wickedness and ignorance they witness in their lifetimes mean nothing, because the good works will survive and carry on into a better future.
21 JUN 2012
Scientific Knowledge is the Only Thing That Gets Better
No history of civilization can be tolerably complete which does not give considerable space to the explanation of scientific progress. If we had any doubts about this, it would suffice to ask ourselves what constitutes the essential difference between our and earlier civilizations. Throughout the course of history, in every period, and in almost every country, we find a small number of saints, of great artists, of men of science. The saints of to-day are not necessarily more saintly than thos...Art, religion, and scientists are all of the same caliber throughout history, the only difference is the wealth of knowledge they have access to grows larger all the time.
12 JUN 2012
An Optimistic View of the Rise of Cancer
The fact that death from cancer is on the increase is not only a problem of medicine, but its at the same time testifies to the wonderful efficiency of medical science... [as it] enables more persons top live long enough to develop some kind of cancer in old and less resistant tissues. It means people are living long enough to get cancer.
05 JAN 2012
Pessimism VS Optimism in Science
By and large, literary intellectuals tend to be a gloomy lot, with little but scorn for science and technology as engines of human happiness. By contrast, science is impossible without hope; it is inherently forward-looking. As Ian McEwan says: "You can't be curious and depressed."
So the two cultures are not based so much on the academic disciplines themselves as on basic temperaments, says Ferry. One is either an optimist or a pessimist about the direction of human civilization; science an...Hope is a virtue, you have to work at it. We are split between optimists and pessimists.
02 JAN 2012
Davy Connects Science to Hope
But Davy wished to make even bigger, philosophical claims for the scientific spirit and imagination. Drawing on his previous exchanges with Coleridge about the ‘hopeful’ nature of scientific progress, he put before his audience a vision of human civilisation itself, brought into being by the scientific drive to enquire and create. Science had woken and energised mankind from his primal ignorance and ‘slumber’. This was in effect Davy’s version of the Prometheus myth: ‘Man, in what...Science is Hope according to the former President of the Royal Society.
References
09 JAN 2013
Humanism as the Next Step
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Morain , Lloyd and Mary (2012-01-01), Humanism as the Next Step, Humanist Press, Retrieved on 2013-01-09Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: humanism
Folksonomies: humanism
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16 AUG 2012
The Autobiography and Other Writings
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Franklin, Benjamin and Silverman , Kenneth (2003-04-01), The Autobiography and Other Writings, Penguin Classics, Retrieved on 2012-08-16Source Material [books.google.com]
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06 AUG 2012
Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Hum...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Condorcet, Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat (1795), Outlines of an Historical View of the Progress of the Human Mind, Retrieved on 2012-08-06Source Material [oll.libertyfund.org]
Folksonomies: philosophy
Folksonomies: philosophy
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21 JUN 2012
Introduction to the History of Science
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Sarton , George Alfred Léon (1931), Introduction to the History of Science, Retrieved on 2012-06-21Source Material [books.google.com]
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12 JUN 2012
Carcinoma of the Right Segment of the Colon
Periodicals>Journal Article: Mayo, Charles (1926), Carcinoma of the Right Segment of the Colon, Annals of Surgery , (Mar 1926), 83, 357., Retrieved on 2012-06-12
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05 JAN 2012
The thing with feathers
Electronic/World Wide Web>Blog: Raymo , Chet (May 2009), The thing with feathers, Science Musings Blog, Retrieved on 2012-01-05Source Material [blog.sciencemusings.com]
Folksonomies: two cultures
Folksonomies: two cultures
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02 JAN 2012
The Age of Wonder
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Holmes , Richard (2010-03-02), The Age of Wonder, Vintage, Retrieved on 2012-01-02Source Material [books.google.com]
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