A Theory That Explains Everything, Explains Nothing

We Do Not Know Anything - This Is The First. Therefore, We Should Be Very Modest - This Is The Second. Not To Claim That We Do Know When We Do Not - This Is The Third. That's The Kind Of Attitude I'd Like To Popularize. There Is Little Hope For Success.

Our Aim As Scientists Is Objective Truth; More Truth, More Interesting Truth, More Intelligible Truth. We Cannot Reasonably Aim At Certainty. Once We Realize That Human Knowledge Is Fallible, We Realize Also That We Can Never Be Completely Certain That We Have Not Made A Mistake.

Instead Of Encouraging The Student To Devote Himself To His Studies For The Sake Of Studying, Instead Of Encouraging In Him A Real Love For His Subject And For Inquiry, He Is Encouraged To Study For The Sake Of His Personal Career; He Is Led To Acquire Only Such Knowledge As Is Serviceable In Getting Him Over The Hurdles Which He Must Clear For The Sake Of His Advancement.

There Will Be Well-testable Theories, Hardly Testable Theories, And Non-testable Theories. Those Which Are Non-testable Are Of No Interest To Empirical Scientists. They May Be Described As Metaphysical.

Propose Theories Which Can Be Criticized. Think About Possible Decisive Falsifying Experiments-crucial Experiments. But Do Not Give Up Your Theories Too Easily-not, At Any Rate, Before You Have Critically Examined Your Criticism.