Opinion is the companion of probability within the…

The best reaction to a paradox is to invent a genuinely new and deep idea.

— Ian Hacking

One of the things Kuhn said about normal science is that people 'expect' things to be discovered.

— Ian Hacking

Probability fractions arise from our knowledge and from our ignorance.

— Ian Hacking

One ought to begin an analysis of power from the ground up, at the level of tiny local events where battles are unwittingly enacted…

— Ian Hacking

It is possible to argue that our present conception of revolution was staked out more securely in science than in political action.

— Ian Hacking

Why should there be the method of science? There is not just one way to build a house, or even to grow tomatoes. We…

— Ian Hacking

Risk analysis can cater to any sort of hazard, but their profession owes its existence to a relatively narrow band of possible dangers.

— Ian Hacking

It is so hard to make important decisions that we have a great urge to reduce them to rules.

— Ian Hacking

In each case you settle on an act. Doing nothing at all counts as an act.

— Ian Hacking

I think it's unfortunate when people say that there is just one true story of science. For one thing, there are many different sciences,…

— Ian Hacking

As a political metaphor, a revolution could, in that sense, mean only a return to better times, or to the true constitution: a ridding…

— Ian Hacking

“Labels such as ‘‘the culture wars,’’ ‘‘the science wars,’’ or ‘‘the Freud wars’’ are now widely used to refer to some of the disagreements…

— Ian Hacking

There are two ways in which a science develops; in response to problems which is itself creates, and in response to problems that are…

— Ian Hacking

From any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive.…

— Ian Hacking

We favor hypotheses for their simplicity and explanatory power, much as the architect of the world might have done in choosing which possibility to…

— Ian Hacking