Preface.
A History of Science Vol.2 Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C. (1959)
Context: Superstitions... are nothing but persistent errors, foolish beliefs, and irrational fears. Superstitions are infinite in number and scope... It would not do to ignore them altogether, only if we should never forget the weakness and fragility of our minds. The consciousness that superstitions are rife in our own society is a healthy shock to our self-conceit and a warning.... it lets us judge ancient superstitions with more indulgence and with a sense of humor. We could not overlook them without falsifying the general picture nor judge them too severely without hypocrisy.
“Now, as to the persistence of superstition, only an impoverished mind considers itself the repository of absolute knowledge.”
Source: Short fiction, Future Tense (1964), Sail 25 (p. 84)
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Jack Vance 213
American mystery and speculative fiction writer 1916–2013Related quotes
Source: Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731), Ch. 5, sct. 7
Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Thinking
"To the Indianapolis Clergy." The Iconoclast (Indianapolis, IN) (1883)
“The mind itself, its love [of itself] and its knowledge [of itself] are a kind of trinity.”
(Cambridge: 2002), Book 9, Chapter 4, Section 4, p. 27
On the Trinity (417)
XIV.
Outline of the Doctrine of Knowledge (1810)
Context: Thus then does the Doctrine of Knowledge, which in its substance is the realisation of the absolute Power of intelligising which has now been defined, end with the recognition of itself as a mere Schema in a Doctrine of Wisdom, although indeed a necessary and indispensable means to such a Doctrine: — a Schema, the sole aim of which is, with the knowledge thus acquired, — by which knowledge alone a Will, clear and intelligible to itself and reposing upon itself without wavering or perplexity, is possible, — to return wholly into Actual Life; — not into the Life of blind and irrational Instinct which we have laid bare in all its nothingness, but into the Divine Life which shall become visible to us.
“The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless.”
Source: Confession (1882), Ch. 5, translated by David Patterson, 1983
Source: A Confession
Source: Extending and Formalizing the Framework for Information Systems Architecture, 1992, p. 615
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), Later German Philosophy, p.168
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World (1995)