In A War A Totalitarian State Has

Given Any Rule, However �fundamental� Or �necessary� For Science, There Are Always Circumstances When It Is Advisable Not Only To Ignore The Rule, But To Adopt Its Opposite.

It Is Clear, Then, That The Idea Of A Fixed Method, Or Of A Fixed Theory Of Rationality, Rests On Too Naive A View Of Man And His Social Surroundings. To Those Who Look At The Rich Material Provided By History, And Who Are Not Intent On Impoverishing It In Order To Please Their Lower Instincts, Their Craving For Intellectual Security In The Form Of Clarity, Precision, "objectivity," "truth," It Will Become Clear That There Is Only One Principle That Can Be Defended Under All Circumstances And In All Stages Of Human Development. It Is The Principle: Anything Goes.

What Is Surprising Is That Almost All The Trends That Developed Within The Sciences, Aristotelianism And An Extreme Platonism Included, Produced Results, Not Only In Special Domains, But Everywhere; There Exist Highly Theoretical Branches Of Biology And Highly Empirical Parts Of Astrophysics. The World Is A Complex An Many-sided Thing.

The Attitude Of The Church Was Not As Dogmatic As Is Often Assumed. Interpretations Of Bible Passages Had Been Revised In The Light Of Scientific Research Before. Everyone Regarded The Earth As Spherical And As Freely Floating In Space Though The Bible Tells A Different Story.

Confronted With Such A Variety Most Philosophers Try To Establish One Approach To The Exclusion Of All Others. As Far As They Are Concerned There Can Only Be One True Way- And They Want To Find It. Thus Normative Philosophers Argue That Knowledge Is A Result Of The Application Of Certain Rules, They Propose Rules Which In Their Opinion Constitute Knowledge And Reject What Clashes With Them.