From any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive. One must have the right ideas. Ian Hacking More Quotes by Ian Hacking More Quotes From Ian Hacking Why should there be the method of science? There is not just one way to build a house, or even to grow tomatoes. We should not expect something as motley as the growth of knowledge to be strapped to one methodology. Ian Hacking house math science Until the seventeenth century there was no concept of evidence with which to pose the problem of induction! Ian Hacking evidence century problem The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea. Ian Hacking reactions paradox ideas Philosophers of science constantly discuss theories and representation of reality, but say almost nothing about experiment, technology, or the use of knowledge to alter the world. This is odd, because 'experimental method' used to be just another name for scientific method.... I hope [to] initiate a Back-to-Bacon movement, in which we attend more seriously to experimental science. Experimentation has a life of its own. Ian Hacking technology science reality Every once in a while, something happens to you that makes you realise that the human race is not quite as bad as it so often seems to be. Ian Hacking hacking realising race The important thing is to be able to understand anyone who has something useful to say. - There is a general moral here. Be very careful and very clear about what you say. But do not be dogmatic about your own language. Be prepared to express any careful thought in the language your audience will understand. And be prepared to learn from someone who talks a language with which you are not familiar. Ian Hacking moral able important Plutonium has a quite extraordinary relationship with people. They made it, and it kills them. Ian Hacking plutonium made people A single observation that is inconsistent with some generalization points to the falsehood of the generalization, and thereby 'points to itself'. Ian Hacking generalization inconsistent observation Statistics began as the systematic study of quantitative facts about the state. Ian Hacking systematic statistics facts There are two ways in which a science develops; in response to problems which is itself creates, and in response to problems that are forced on it from the outside. Ian Hacking problem two way Molecular biology has routinely taken problematic things under its wing without altering core ideas. Ian Hacking taken wings ideas Experimental work provides the strongest evidence for scientific realism. This is not because we test hypotheses about entities. It is because entities that in principle cannot be 'observed' are manipulated to produce a new phenomena Ian Hacking principles science reality We favor hypotheses for their simplicity and explanatory power, much as the architect of the world might have done in choosing which possibility to create. Ian Hacking simplicity done world Probability fractions arise from our knowledge and from our ignorance. Ian Hacking fractions arise ignorance When land and its tillage are the basis of taxation, one need not care exactly how many people there are. Ian Hacking land people needs By legend and perhaps by nature philosophers are more accustomed to the armchair than the workbench. Ian Hacking legends philosopher armchairs Opinion is the companion of probability within the medieval epistemology. Ian Hacking medieval companion opinion Many modern philosophers claim that probability is relation between an hypothesis and the evidence for it. Ian Hacking philosopher modern claims Much early alchemy seems to have been adventure. You heated and mixed and burnt and pounded and to see what would happen. An adventure might suggest an hypothesis that can subsequently be tested, but adventure is prior to theory. Ian Hacking theory might adventure Thers is this wonderful iconoclast at Rutgers, Doron Zeilberger, who says that our mathematics is the result of a random walk, by which he means what WE call mathematics. Likewise, I think, for the sciences. Ian Hacking science mean thinking
