Free Culture (2004)
Context: A simple idea blinds us, and under the cover of darkness, much happens that most of us would reject if any of us looked. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in ideas that we don't even notice how monstrous it is to deny ideas to a people who are dying without them. So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don't even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically. Blindness becomes our common sense. And the challenge for anyone who would reclaim the right to cultivate our culture is to find a way to make this common sense open its eyes.
So far, common sense sleeps. There is no revolt. Common sense does not yet see what there could be to revolt about.
“The best of ideas is hurt by uncritical acceptance and thrives on critical examination.”
Source: How to Solve It (1945), p. 100
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George Pólya 35
Hungarian mathematician 1887–1985Related quotes
“The objection that consequentialism demands too much is accepted uncritically by almost all of us.”
‘Does Consequentialism Demand Too Much?’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, vol. 13, no. 3 (1984), p. 239
Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 1 "The Decision Grid" (p. 31)
This is part of Lang's campaign in his attempt to discredit the results of The 1977 survey of the American professoriate published in 1979 by Everett C Ladd and Seymour M Lipsett. In 1981 Lang published The File: Case Study in Correction (1977-1979) which consists of copies of correspondence concerning the survey. In this quote from The File Lang sets out why he fought that campaign.
The Drama of the Gifted Child (Das Drama des begabten Kindes, 1979)
The Book of Secrets: Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life (2004)
"Creativity in Science and Engineering", Martin Perl's blog Reflections on Physics … from the Tau to Dark Energy http://martinperl.com/
Essay on Creativity in Science and Engineering