Granting that our knowledge be limited, what can it profit us to traffic in lurid fantasies and errant imaginings? When-certainty failing us-we must speculate, let us recognize the difference between careful enumeration of reasonable hypotheses, and the reckless multiplication of bizarre conceptions.
Michael SheaRelated topics
difference enumeration errant failing granting hypothesis knowledge limited multiplication profit reasonable trafficRelated quotes
Our assent to the hypothesis implies that it is held to be true of all particular instances. That these cases belong to past or to future times, that they have or have not already occurred, makes no difference in the applicability of the rule to them. Because the rule prevails, it includes all cases.
William Whewell
If it were possible adequately to present the whole of a culture, stressing every aspect exactly as appears in the culture itself, no single detail would appear bizarre or strange or arbitrary to the reader, but rather the details would all appear natural and reasonable as they do to the natives who have lived all their lives within the culture.
Gregory Bateson
