Quotation
Last reviewed:
“At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes — an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.”
Carl Sagan · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 1995
What does it mean?
Science, as he describes it, needs both doors: one open to strange ideas, one that inspects every idea without sentiment. The usual reading is that wonder without scrutiny is credulity, and scrutiny without wonder is a closed shop. A competing reading picks a favourite half and calls it the scientific attitude. He says the balance is essential and that the two sides pull against each other. The sentence is chapter 17, whose title is the marriage of scepticism and wonder. Bizarre ideas are allowed in. They are not allowed to skip the scrutiny, and old ideas do not get a pass either.
Did Carl Sagan really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. His English in chapter 17. He says the two attitudes, creative and sceptical, keep the field on track, and that they are in tension. The spelling 'skeptical' is his American English.
Where it comes from
The Demon-Haunted World (1995), chapter 17, The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder
Approximate date: 1995.
How to use it
A club in Oxford that only welcomes findings it already likes, and a club that welcomes every finding and tests none, are the two failures. He wants the awkward pair in the same room. If your habit is only one of them, the chapter is about you.
A mindset reading
The tension is a feature. Resolving it by dropping either attitude is how the sentence gets turned into a motto you can print on one line. Keep both.
Understand the philosophy
Chapter 17 of The Demon-Haunted World. The key word is balance. Chapter 12 lists the tools of the sceptical half. The star-stuff narration and the pale blue dot are the wonder, earlier and in other books. This sentence is where he says those tempers belong to one activity. American spelling is kept because it is his.
- knowledge
- mind
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
Science, as he describes it, needs both doors: one open to strange ideas, one that inspects every idea without sentiment. The usual reading is that wonder without scrutiny is credulity, and scrutiny without wonder is a closed shop. A competing reading picks a favourite half and calls it the scientific attitude. He says the balance is essential and that the two sides pull against each other. The sentence is chapter 17, whose title is the marriage of scepticism and wonder. Bizarre ideas are allowed in. They are not allowed to skip the scrutiny, and old ideas do not get a pass either.
Did Carl Sagan really say this?
Well attested. His English in chapter 17. He says the two attitudes, creative and sceptical, keep the field on track, and that they are in tension. The spelling 'skeptical' is his American English.
Which work is it in?
The Demon-Haunted World (1995), chapter 17, The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder Approximate date: 1995.