Built Quote by Elizabeth Janeway
“How can you communicate your thoughts or demonstrate your hypotheses by conventional means when all the values and standards that you want to challenge are built into those means? Science and new technology today like to declare that they encourage 'lateral thinking,' new ways of seeing and putting data together - but all systems have an inbuilt resistance to what has not been programmed into them through the premises on which their rules are based.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: The Limits of Conventional Discourse, Elizabeth Janeway, 1975
Conventional tools embed the very assumptions they are supposed to question, making it hard to express dissenting ideas.
In simple terms: Standard methods hide the biases they rely on.
Key Takeaway
Find or create alternative frameworks.
Themes
critical thinking
innovation
systems
Mood
frustrated
determined
inquisitive
Type
analytical
philosophical
challenging
When to use this quote
- academic publishing
- policy debate
- technology design
- public discourse
Key Concepts
epistemology
cognitive bias
paradigm shift
Questions to Reflect On
- How can you expose hidden assumptions?
- What alternative methods can bypass built‑in limits?
A Different Perspective
Even new tools can inherit old constraints.
