ABSTRACT
Man has achieved the possibility of being critical of his own tentative trials, of his own theories. These theories are no longer incorporated in his organism or his genetic system. The “carrier” of a hypothesis has an important function in the discussions: He has to defend the hypothesis against erroneous criticism, and he may perhaps try to modify it if in its original form it cannot be successfully defended. If the method of rational critical discussion should establish itself, this should make the use of violence obsolete: Critical reason is the only alternative to violence so far discovered. The chapter suggests that in some of the more ambitious social sciences and philosophies, especially in Germany, the traditional game, which has largely become the unconscious and unquestioned standard, is to state the utmost trivialities in high-sounding language.
