Germar Rudolf, Resistance Is Obligatory (2012; PDF-Datei

GERMAR RUDOLF, RESISTANCE IS OBLIGATORY
one of the amazing facts about German university education is that, to
the best of my knowledge, no course of study in German higher education
– of course with the exception of philosophy – offers even a basic
introduction to theory of science or epistemology, let alone that it would
be obligatory. Every year hundreds of thousands of students are educated
at German colleges and universities to become scientists, yet hardly
any one of them receives a formal instruction in what science actually
is. Even I, having completed my studies to the point of my final PhD
exam, that is to say to the point where I should have been able to prove
my capability for independent scientific work, have never attended a
single lecture on the subject – let alone that I have even learned that
such lectures are offered. One practically has to learn this skill by reading
between the lines. What I have presented to you in the last few days
of this trial, I had learned through private studies after having finished
my university training. I consider this deficiency of scientific training in
Germany to be really grave, and perhaps it is partially responsible for
the sad level not only of the above quoted decision of the Constitutional
High Court, but for the entire discussion about established science and
alleged pseudo-science of dissident researchers, whether in contemporary
historiography or anywhere else.
This is in my view one of the main reasons why the general public
confuses authority with science. However, not that is scientific which is
claimed by “recognized” – or merely powerful – authorities, but rather
that which fulfills the formal criteria presented here. In this sense I may
again quote Karl R. Popper: 122
“[Pseudorationalism] is the immodest belief in one’s superior intellectual
gifts, the claim to be initiated, to know with certainty, and
with authority. [...] This authoritarian intellectualism […] is often
called ‘rationalism’, but it is the diametrically opposed to what we
call by this name.”
V. Science and the Public
In conclusion I would like to elaborate on the relationship of science
and the public. After all, the only reason I am standing here before this
Court is because I made scientific works accessible to the public. I
122 Karl Popper, The Open…, op. cit. (note 70), vol. 2, p. 227.
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