Economics is based on the assumption that people have reasonably simple objectives and
choose the correct means to achieve them. Both assumptions are false – but useful.
—David Friedman, 1996
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1970
***
There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.
—Cicero, 44 BC
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
—William Shakespeare, 1603
Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
—John Selden, 1689
Philosophy […] consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
—Henry Adams, 1907
Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1911
A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.
A theologian is the man who finds it.
—Anonymous
28
Philosophers no longer write for the intelligent, only for their fellow professionals.
—Jacques Barzun, 1989
Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He
usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.
—H. L. Mencken, 1956
Philosophers, incidentally, say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science,
and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong.
—Richard Feynman, 1963
29
28
Published as an anonymous joke by H. L. Mencken in 1942. It might be based on a similar
statement (about the term “equity”) by Charles Bowen, quoted in 1911 by John Alderson Foote.
29
I could not find a reliable confirmation of the authorship of another famous aphorism on this
subject, sometimes attributed to R. Feynman and sometimes to S. Weinberg: “The philosophy of
science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.” (The same is frequently said about the
value of aesthetics for arts).
50
On Sciences and Technologies
choose the correct means to achieve them. Both assumptions are false – but useful.
—David Friedman, 1996
In economics, hope and faith coexist with great scientific pretension.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1970
***
There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it.
—Cicero, 44 BC
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
—William Shakespeare, 1603
Philosophy is nothing but discretion.
—John Selden, 1689
Philosophy […] consists chiefly in suggesting unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.
—Henry Adams, 1907
Philosophy, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.
—Ambrose Bierce, 1911
A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.
A theologian is the man who finds it.
—Anonymous
28
Philosophers no longer write for the intelligent, only for their fellow professionals.
—Jacques Barzun, 1989
Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He
usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.
—H. L. Mencken, 1956
Philosophers, incidentally, say a great deal about what is absolutely necessary for science,
and it is always, so far as one can see, rather naive, and probably wrong.
—Richard Feynman, 1963
29
28
Published as an anonymous joke by H. L. Mencken in 1942. It might be based on a similar
statement (about the term “equity”) by Charles Bowen, quoted in 1911 by John Alderson Foote.
29
I could not find a reliable confirmation of the authorship of another famous aphorism on this
subject, sometimes attributed to R. Feynman and sometimes to S. Weinberg: “The philosophy of
science is as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds.” (The same is frequently said about the
value of aesthetics for arts).
50
On Sciences and Technologies