My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The final war will be between Pavlov's dog and Schoedinger's Cat.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously juxtaposes two well-known thought experiments to suggest a conflict between determinism and uncertainty.
Robert Anton Wilson's quote presents a playful yet profound idea that the ultimate conflict may emerge from the battle between the principles of classical conditioning, epitomized by Pavlov's dog, which represents behaviorism and predictability, and SchrΓΆdinger's cat, a thought experiment from quantum mechanics that embodies uncertainty and paradox. This suggests a philosophical contemplation on the nature of reality and how we interpret behavior, truth, and existence in a complex world.
Themes
PavlovSchrodingerDogCatDeterminismUncertaintyPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophy class discussing determinism and free will, this quote can illustrate the clash of ideas.
More from Robert Anton Wilson
All quotes βThere is no governor anywhere. You are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped. If anybody could go into dhyana at will, nobody could be controlled - by fear of prison, by fear of whips or electroshock, by fear of death, even. All existing society is based on keeping those fears alive, to control the masses. Ten people who know would be more dangerous than a million armed anarchists.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
I see anarchism as the theoretical ideal to which we are all gradually evolving to a point where everybody can tell the truth to everybody else and nobody can get punished for it. That can only happen without hierarchy and without people having the authority to punish other people.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
To work for libertarianism - to oppose the growth of government and aid the liberation of the individual - used to be an idealistic choice taken for purely idealistic reasons. Now it is an act of intelligent and almost desperate self-defense.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The abandoned infant's cry is rage, not fear.
Robert Anton WilsonRead
The only way to stave off boredom, in a complex domesticated primate like humankind, is to increase one's intelligence. This is not appealing to the average primate, who instead invents emotional games (soap opera and grand opera dramatics).
Robert Anton WilsonRead
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