Certainty Ends Inquiry.

It Is Often Said That The Progression From Simple To Complex Runs Counter To The Normal Statistics Of Chance That Are Formalized In The Second Law Of Thermodynamics. Strictly Speaking, We Could Avoid This Criticism Simply By Insisting That The Second Law Does Not Apply To Living Systems In The Environment In Which We Find Them. For The Second Law Applies Only When There Is No Overall Flow Of Energy Into Or Out Of A System, Whereas All Living Systems Are Sustained By A Net Inflow Of Energy.

I Call That Brilliant Sequence Of Cultural Peaks The Ascent Of Man.

The Central Opposition Between Magic And Science Is The Opposition Between Power And Knowledge.

By The Worldly Standards Of Public Life, All Scholars In Their Work Are Of Course Oddly Virtuous. They Do Not Make Wild Claims, They Do Not Cheat, They Do Not Try To Persuade At Any Cost, They Appeal Neither To Prejudice Nor To Authority, They Are Often Frank About Their Ignorance, Their Disputes Are Fairly Decorous, They Do Not Confuse What Is Being Argued With Race, Politics, Sex Or Age, They Listen Patiently To The Young And To The Old Who Both Know Everything. These Are The General Virtues Of Scholarship, And They Are Peculiarly The Virtues Of Science.

There Is No Absolute Knowledge. And Those Who Claim It, Whether They Are Scientists Or Dogmatists, Open The Door To Tragedy.