Original artwork, not a still
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It is a defence of doubt: a scientist's first duty is to ask how anyone found something out, not who said it. Aimed at teachers, it warns against handing children a pile of facts to memorise on authority. That makes it a favourite for classroom posters and conference slides, usually cut loose from the airfield riff that comes just before it.
Context reviewed
In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
In April 1966 Richard Feynman gave a talk titled "What Is Science?" to the fifteenth annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association in New York City; it was printed in The Physics Teacher in 1969. He had just described how imitation science, like the South Sea islanders' wooden airfields, produces experts. Then he told the teachers, who work at the bottom of the heap with the children, that they could doubt those experts. His second definition of science follows: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." Science teaches nothing, he went on; experience does.
Sources (2)
- Feynman, "What is Science?" (NSTA 1966; The Physics Teacher)title page and the passage after the airfield analogyReference checked
- Wikipedia: Richard Feynman1966 NSTA address and bibliographyReference checked
Context reviewed
