The term 'simplicity' functions then merely as a disguise for another meaning than its own. It is used for smuggling an essential quality into our ap… - Michael Polanyi
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The term 'simplicity' functions then merely as a disguise for another meaning than its own. It is used for smuggling an essential quality into our appreciation of a scientific theory, which a mistaken conception of objectivity forbids us to openly acknowledge.
Michael Polanyi (March 11, 1891 – February 22, 1976), born Polányi Mihály, was a Hungarian–British polymath whose thought and work extended across physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.
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Wikimedia Commons, Original author is unknown, found in Manchester archives (Public domain / CC0)
Portrait from Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Original author is unknown, found in Manchester archives. Used under Public domain / CC0. Processed and styled by Quotewise.
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The correct reading of <math>\vdash</math> p written down by me in good faith is therefore 'I believe p', or some other words expressing the same fiduciary act.
Whitehead and Russell ... translate <math>\vdash</math> p imples q into the words 'it is asserted that p implies q'. But the phrase 'it is asserted' suggests an impersonal happening of assertions: 'it is asserted' as 'it is raining' or 'it happens'. The value of the assertion sign is lost if we allow ourselves to revert in our verbal translation of it to the muddle of a declaratory sentence which asserts itself or is impersonally asserted by nobody in particular.
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While the articulate contents of science are successfully taught all over the world in hundreds of universities, the unspecifiable art of scientific research has not yet penetrated to many of these.
