Science is essentially an anarchic enterprise: theoretical anarchism is more humanitarian and more likely to encourage progress than its law-and-order alternatives.
Interpretation
Science thrives on freedom and creative thinking rather than rigid structure and authority.
In this quote, Paul Feyerabend suggests that scientific progress is best achieved in an environment that encourages theoretical exploration without strict adherence to established norms. He argues that an anarchic approach to science, where free thought and debate are prioritized over authoritarian structures, fosters innovation and humanitarian values, ultimately leading to greater advancements in knowledge and understanding.
In practice
In a lecture about scientific methodologies, you could illustrate the importance of creative freedom in research by quoting Feyerabend.
The idea of a method that contains firm, unchanging, and absolutely binding principles for conducting the business of science meets considerable difficulty when confronted with the results of historical research. We find, then, that there is not a single rule, however plausible, and however firmly grounded in epistemology, that is not violated at some time or another.
No theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain, yet it is not always the theory that is to blame. Facts are constituted by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of progress. It is also a first step in our attempt to find the principles implicit in familiar observational notions.
The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution.
The only absolute truth is that there are no absolute truths.
Science is only βoneβ of the many instruments people invented to cope with their surroundings. It is not the only one, it is not infallible and it has become too powerful, too pushy and too dangerous to be left on its own.
The separation of science and non-science is not only artificial but also detrimental to the advancement of knowledge. If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a small selection of them.
Imaginary time is a new dimension, at right angles to ordinary, real time.
No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
I was interested in the nature of human mental processes, which is what got me interested in psychoanalysis. And it became clear to me after a while that mental processes come from the brain, and in order to understand them, you need to be a biologist of the brain.
I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device.
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
Theoretical physics is one of the few fields in which being disabled is no handicap - it is all in the mind.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.