Karl Fisch channels Steven Johnson on Joseph Priestly's discovery of oxygen. Johnson: "The idea of proprietary secrets, of withholding information for personal gain, was unimaginable in that group.... But Priestley was a compulsive sharer, and the emphasis on openness and general circulation is as consistent a theme as any in his work..." Quite right, and Johnson is correct to draw the parallel between our age and the enlightenment. The creation of knowledge requires certain skills - they are skills we have gotten away from in recent years, but we can find them again. They are skills like communication and sharing, thinking, reasoning and criticizing, creating and inventing.
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