Although some secrecy is odious, some is essential just to preserve our sense of self. Ian Hacking Read Quote
As a political metaphor, a revolution could, in that sense, mean only a return to better times, or to the true constitution: a ridding of excess or usurpers. Ian Hacking Read Quote
It is possible to argue that our present conception of revolution was staked out more securely in science than in political action. Ian Hacking Read Quote
Despite a certain amount of rhetoric, such as ‘the second American Revolution,’ there is a fair consensus about which events in the affairs of a people can rightly be called revolutions. It is also clear that such revolutions are proper objects of study for the historian. Ian Hacking Read Quote
Every moral teacher or spiritual adviser gives injunctions about how to live wisely and well. But life is so complicated and full of uncertainty that rules seldom tell us quite what to do. Ian Hacking Read Quote
Kant taught us that we should follow just those rules of conduct that we would want everybody to follow. Few find this generalization of The Golden Rule a great help. Ian Hacking Read Quote
Philip Kitcher thinks that mathematics is surprisingly like empirical science. Few mathematicians would agree; philosophers too, from Socrates on, have held the opposite opinion. Ian Hacking Read Quote
One of the things Kuhn said about normal science is that people ‘expect’ things to be discovered. Ian Hacking Read Quote
All peoples have evolved extraordinarily precise ways of settling issues about the things that matter to them. Ian Hacking Read Quote