We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
B. F. SkinnerRead
A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Scientists are generally confident in their ability to find answers, unlike philosophers who may struggle with certainty.
In this quote, B. F. Skinner highlights the contrasting approaches of science and philosophy towards knowledge and certainty. While scientists may face uncertainty in their immediate conclusions, they trust in their methods and reasoning to eventually uncover answers. In contrast, philosophy often grapples with deeper, sometimes unanswerable questions, leading to a sense of ambiguity that scientists typically do not experience.
Themes
SciencePhilosophyCertaintyKnowledgeAnswers
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the differences between scientific inquiry and philosophical debate.
More from B. F. Skinner
All quotes βEach of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
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No theory changes what it is a theory about; man remains what he has always been.
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I am opposed to the military use of animals. I am also opposed to the military use of men.
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The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone.
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Unable to understand how or why the person we see behaves as he does, we attribute his behavior to a person we cannot see, whose behavior we cannot explain either but about whom we are not inclined to ask questions.
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