Open Set Condition

Famous quotes containing the words open, set and/or condition:

    We must not leap to the fatalistic conclusion that we are stuck with the conceptual scheme that we grew up in. We can change it, bit by bit, plank by plank, though meanwhile there is nothing to carry us along but the evolving conceptual scheme itself. The philosopher’s task was well compared by Neurath to that of a mariner who must rebuild his ship on the open sea.
    Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)

    You do not become a “dissident” just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)

    No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.
    André Gide (1869–1951)