Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Quote of the Day: The Wondering Self of Science

"What we must grasp here is this: if one has a feeling of wonder, it is one's self that has it, and not another; if one feels the challenge of a question or problem and responds by research, it is one's self that feels the challenge and one's self that makes the response; if one observes, or judges or reasons, it is one's self that does it. And so it is with all the faculties that engender Science. Fear may suppress or paralyze them; evil education may destroy them; through long, habitual, blind, unreasoning submission to external authority—church, state or public opinion—they may perish utterly; but no autonomous being can surrender or delegate them and remain autonomous; they are humanistic faculties."
– Cassius J. Keyser, (Humanism and Science [1931], p. 102)

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