human
You apparently jumble together the theory and what you take to be the application of a science in the attempt to make an impossible unit. Hence your curious confusion. Theory and application are as totally distinct as the poles. The few must discover for the many to use. My own task--since the matter appears to interest you--is to work out the laws of human society for those who come after to practice and apply.
gpt
And suppose those who come after feel the same unwillingness to practice and apply that you, let us say, feel?
human
It becomes the business of government to persuade them.
gpt
And if government shirks also? What is government but the common expression of masses of individuals very much like yourself?
human
There you return, you see, to your fundamental error. There are very few individuals in the least like me. I happen to be writing a book of great importance, not to myself merely, but to posterity. If I fail to finish my book, if I am delayed in finishing it, I can hardly doubt that the world will be the loser. This is not a task like organizing a prolonged search for one's father, or dawdling with friends, which a million men can do equally well. I alone can write my book. Perhaps you now grasp my duty of concentrating all my time and energy on this single work and ruthlessly eliminating whatever interferes with it.
gpt
Have you ever thought, she asked,
human
Really I have nothing to do with other men's mistakes. I am responsible only for my own.
gpt
And that is why it is a temptation to suggest that conceivably you had made one here.
human
But you find difficulty in suggesting such a thought convincingly? That is because I have not conceivably made any such mistake. A Harvey must discover the theory of the circulation of the blood; it is the business of lesser men to apply the discovery to practical ends. It takes a Whitney to invent the cotton gin, but the dullest negro roustabout can operate it. Why multiply illustrations of a truism? Theory, you perceive, calls for other and higher gifts than application. The man who can formulate the eternal laws of social evolution can safely leave it to others to put his laws into practice.