For some folks, having to click on a link is a trivial inconvenience, so here’s the relevant part:
As a colleague of the writer once remarked, ‘Philosophers are free to do whatever they please, because they don’t have to do anything right.’ But a responsible scientist does not have that freedom; he will not assert the truth of a general principle, and urge others to adopt it, merely on the strength of his own intuition.
Do you know which page of Jaynes you are paraphrasing, by chance?
pg. 144, middle of the page, last paragraph before 5.8 Bayesian Jurisprudence
http://books.google.com/books?id=tTN4HuUNXjgC&pg=PA144
Normally I’d cut and paste the quote, but google books won’t let me copy, and I’m too lazy.
For some folks, having to click on a link is a trivial inconvenience, so here’s the relevant part:
Thanks. Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Such is my laziness, that I didn’t pay attention to Jaynes’ elaboration to the quote, which is pretty good too.