"The tendency of modern scientific teaching is to neglect the great books, to lay far too much stress upon relatively unimportant modern work, and to present masses of detail of doubtful truth and questionable weight in such a way as to obscure principles"

Ronald Fisher laments the direction of scientific education, arguing that it has become overly fixated on recent research at the expense of foundational works. Great books, representing the distilled wisdom and enduring principles of scientific inquiry, are neglected. Instead of anchoring education in the methods, ideas, and insights forged by the originators of a field, modern teaching often submerges students in a sea of contemporary studies. This shift risks divorcing learners from the historical and conceptual roots that give meaning and coherence to scientific knowledge.

By prioritizing modern findings, education may emphasize minutiae, details that, while abundant, are not always reliable or meaningful. Fisher suggests that not all contemporary work maintains the rigor or significance of the classics. When instruction overwhelms students with data of “doubtful truth and questionable weight,” it leads to confusion or superficial understanding rather than deep comprehension. The pursuit of breadth, in this case, comes at the cost of depth and clarity. Students, caught in a flurry of recent facts and tentative conclusions, may fail to discern the broader patterns or underlying theories that tie disparate observations together.

Moreover, Fisher worries that core principles, the foundational algorithms, the guiding heuristics, the axiomatic truths, can be lost amid a flood of details. Principles enable scientists to critically evaluate new findings and to integrate novel information into a coherent worldview. Neglecting these anchors turns scientific training into a rote accumulation of facts that may lack context or critical assessment, impoverishing both intellectual development and practical competence.

Fisher’s criticism is a call to reconsider educational priorities: a reminder to balance modern developments with reverence for the works that have shaped the scientific enterprise. He advocates for focusing on lasting ideas and careful cultivation of fundamental understanding, rather than being swept away by the transient and the trivial.