Anticipatory plagiarism occurs when someone steals your original idea and publishes it a hundred years before you were born.
Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science encourages questioning and doubt, unlike many institutions that require blind faith.
This quote by Robert K. Merton highlights a fundamental difference between science and other institutions. While many organizations, whether religious, political, or social, often demand unwavering belief and compliance from their followers, science thrives on skepticism and inquiry. In science, questioning and challenging established ideas are not only accepted but celebrated, as this spirit of doubt is crucial for the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the world. Essentially, Merton elevates skepticism in science to a moral dimension, making it a virtue essential for intellectual growth.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a science class, the teacher uses this quote to inspire students to ask questions rather than just memorize facts.
More from Robert K. Merton
All quotes βMax Weber was right in subscribing to the view that one need not be Caesar in order to understand Caesar. But there is a temptation for us theoretical sociologists to act sometimes as though it is not necessary even to study Caesar in order to understand him. Yet we know that the interplay of theory and research makes both for understanding of the specific case and expansion of the general rule.
The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true. The specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.
Similar quotes
O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre!
Evolution has encountered no intellectual trouble; no new arguments have been offered. Creationism is a home-grown phenomenon of American sociocultural history-a splinter movement ... who believe that every word in the Bible must be literally true, whatever such a claim might mean.
Why do more than 40 percent of Americans think that the Universe began after the domestication of the dog?
A sound-bite culture can't discuss science very well. Exactly what we're losing when we reduce biodiversity, the causes and consequences of global warming-these traumas can't be adequately summarized in an evening news wrap-up.
If you don't get a good night's sleep, the events of the day are not properly encoded in memory.
Mankind will not forever remain on Earth but, in the pursuit of light and space, will first timidly emerge from the bounds of the atmosphere and then advance until he has conquered the whole of circumsolar space.