Weekly Quotes
19th February
The principle of proliferation: Invent, and elaborate theories which are inconsistent with the accepted point of view, even if the latter should happen to be highly confirmed and generally accepted.
The principle of proliferation: Invent, and elaborate theories which are inconsistent with the accepted point of view, even if the latter should happen to be highly confirmed and generally accepted.
"Reply to criticism", in: Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 2, 1965. Reprinted in: Realism, Rationalism and Scientific Method (Philosophical Papers, Vol. 1.), Cambridge, etc: Cambridge University Press, 1981. p.105.
This is how proliferation is introduced by Mill. It is not the result of a detailed epistemological analysis, or, what would be worse, of a linguistic examination of the usage of such words as 'to know' and 'to have evidence for'. Nor is proliferation proposed as a solution to epistemological problems such as Hume's problem, or the problem of the testability of general statements. . . . Proliferation is introduced as the solution to a problem of life: how can we achieve full consciousness; how can we learn what we are capable of doing; how can we increase our freedom so that we are able to decide, rather than adopt by habit, the manner in which we want to use our talents?
This is how proliferation is introduced by Mill. It is not the result of a detailed epistemological analysis, or, what would be worse, of a linguistic examination of the usage of such words as 'to know' and 'to have evidence for'. Nor is proliferation proposed as a solution to epistemological problems such as Hume's problem, or the problem of the testability of general statements. . . . Proliferation is introduced as the solution to a problem of life: how can we achieve full consciousness; how can we learn what we are capable of doing; how can we increase our freedom so that we are able to decide, rather than adopt by habit, the manner in which we want to use our talents?
"Against Method: Outline of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge", in M. Radner – S. Winokur (eds.) Minnesota Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. IV., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1970, p.28.