For scholarship - if it is to be scholarship - requires, in addition to liberty, that the truth take precedence over all sectarian interests, including self-interest.
John PolanyiRead
Our assessment of socio-economic worth is largely a sham. We scientists should not lend ourselves to it - though we routinely do. We should, instead, insist on applying the criterion of quality.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The value of scientific work should not be judged solely by economic factors; quality should be the primary criterion.
In this quote, John Polanyi argues that the assessment of the worth of scientific research is often distorted by socio-economic factors, and scientists frequently compromise their integrity by adhering to these assessments. He emphasizes the importance of prioritizing quality over economic value, suggesting that scientific contributions should be evaluated based on their true merit rather than their perceived financial relevance.
Themes
ScienceQualitySocio-EconomicValueIntegrity
In practice
Example use cases
A scientist speaking at a conference about the importance of prioritizing research quality over funding.
More from John Polanyi
All quotes →If we treasure our own experience and regard it as real, we must also treasure other people's experience.
John PolanyiRead
It is this, at its most basic, that makes science a humane pursuit; it acknowledges the commonality of people's experience.
John PolanyiRead
When, as we must often do, we fear science, we really fear ourselves.
John PolanyiRead
Similar quotes
An admiral without ships, a hand without fingers, in service of a king without a throne. Is this a knight who comes before us, or the answer to a child's riddle?
George R. R. MartinRead
Life is always frightful. We cannot help it and we are responsible all the same. One's born and at once one is guilty.
Hermann HesseRead
The word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.
Carl JungRead
Human rights will be a powerful force for the transformation of reality when they are not simply understood as externally defined norms of behavior but are lived as the spontaneous manifestation of internalized values.
Daisaku IkedaRead
Truth is proper and beautiful in all times and in all places.
Frederick DouglassRead
Most men ebb and flow in wretchedness between the fear of death and the hardship of life; they are unwilling to live, and yet they do not know how to die.
Seneca The YoungerRead