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A single observation that is inconsistent with some generalization points to the falsehood of the generalization, and thereby 'points to itself'.

Ian Hacking

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Ian Hacking
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: February 18
Historian
Philosopher
Professor
Vancouver
British Columbia
Ian MacDougall Hacking
Generalization
Inconsistent
Thereby
Falsehood
Points
Observation
Single

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I have this extraordinary curiosity about all subjects of the natural and human world and the interaction between the physical sciences and the social sciences.
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Opinion is the companion of probability within the medieval epistemology.
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Acceptance means commitment, among other things.
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By legend and perhaps by nature philosophers are more accustomed to the armchair than the workbench.
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Until the seventeenth century there was no concept of evidence with which to pose the problem of induction!
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From any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive. One must have the right ideas.
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Why should there be the method of science? There is not just one way to build a house, or even to grow tomatoes. We should not expect something as motley as the growth of knowledge to be strapped to one methodology.
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The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea.
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If you were just intent on killing people you could do better with a bomb made of agricultural fertiliser.
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The final arbitrator in philosophy is not how we think but what we do.
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Probability fractions arise from our knowledge and from our ignorance.
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