by The truly scientific attitude I recall, with sadness, a comment made to me by the author of a well-known textbook. Upon being asked whether he accepted my analysis of demand theory as presented first in 1948, the reply was positive. He added that it would not be included in his advanced textbook because “it would upset too many things and be too disturbing, i.e., Dicta non movere.” So much for the acceptance of new scientific results and for a truly scientific attitude. Compare this with the attitude of von Neumann, who while teaching in 1931 a course on mathematical logic and on the foundations of mathematics, read Kurt Gödel’s just published paper containing his famous undecidability theorem, walked into his class, and said: “Forget what I taught you.
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Lars Pålsson Syll considers the following as important: Theory of Science & Methodology
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The truly scientific attitude
I recall, with sadness, a comment made to me by the author of a well-known textbook. Upon being asked whether he accepted my analysis of demand theory as presented first in 1948, the reply was positive. He added that it would not be included in his advanced textbook because “it would upset too many things and be too disturbing, i.e., Dicta non movere.” So much for the acceptance of new scientific results and for a truly scientific attitude.
Compare this with the attitude of von Neumann, who while teaching in 1931 a course on mathematical logic and on the foundations of mathematics, read Kurt Gödel’s just published paper containing his famous undecidability theorem, walked into his class, and said: “Forget what I taught you. It was all wrong. I shall only teach you what Gödel has just published.”