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Allen Wheelis
(23 Oct 1915 - 14 Jun 2007)
American psychoanalyst and writer who used his knowledge of the human mind to write the novel The Way Things Are (1994). He also published scientific articles and short stories. The movie, Crazy-Quilt (1966) was based on one of his stories.
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Science Quotes by Allen Wheelis (4 quotes)
Clearly it is not reason that has failed. What has failed—as it has always failed—is the attempt to achieve certainty, to reach an absolute, to find the course of human events to a final end. ... It is not reason that has promised to eliminate risk in human undertakings; it is the emotional needs of men.
— Allen Wheelis
In The Quest For Identity (1958), 135.
One can often recognize herd animals by their tendency to carry bibles.
— Allen Wheelis
From 'The Signal', a short story in Illusionless Man: Fantasies and Meditations (1971).
Science would have us believe that such accuracy, leading to certainty, is the only criterion of knowledge, would make the trial of Galileo the paradigm of the two points of view which aspire to truth, would suggest, that is, that the cardinals represent only superstition and repression, while Galileo represents freedom. But there is another criterion which is systematically neglected in this elevation of science. Man does not now—and will not ever—live by the bread of scientific method alone. He must deal with life and death, with love and cruelty and despair, and so must make conjectures of great importance which may or may not be true and which do not lend themselves to experimentation: It is better to give than to receive; Love thy neighbor as thyself; Better to risk slavery through non-violence than to defend freedom with murder. We must deal with such propositions, must decide whether they are true, whether to believe them, whether to act on them—and scientific method is no help for by their nature these matters lie forever beyond the realm of science.
— Allen Wheelis
In The End of the Modern Age (1973), 89.
The spirit of science is not to prejudge, but to give any honest query a fair shake.
— Allen Wheelis
In How People Change (1975), 86.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
