It Is A Mistake To Think Of

A Popular Cliche In Philosophy Says That Science Is Pure Analysis Or Reductionism, Like Taking The Rainbow To Pieces; And Art Is Pure Synthesis, Putting The Rainbow Together. This Is Not So. All Imagination Begins By Analyzing Nature.

A Theory In Its Day Helps To Solve The Problems Of The Day.

The World Is Made Up Of People Who Never Quite Get Into The First Team And Who Just Miss The Prizes At The Flower Show.

Progress Is The Exploration Of Our Own Error. Evolution Is A Consolidation Of What Have Always Begun As Errors. And Errors Are Of Two Kinds: Errors That Turn Out To Be True And Errors That Turn Out To Be False (which Are Most Of Them). But They Both Have The Same Character Of Being An Imaginative Speculation. I Say All This Because I Want Very Much To Talk About The Human Side Of Discovery And Progress, And It Seems To Me Terribly Important To Say This In An Age In Which Most Non-scientists Are Feeling A Kind Of Loss Of Nerve.

There Is A Social Injunction Implied In The Positivist And Analyst Methods. This Social Axiom Is That :;:;:;:;:;:; We Ought To Act In Such A Way That What Is True Can Be Verified To Be So.