Zurich Institute

Reading

Works that shaped our thinking, with the ideas we took from each.

Theory

Ideas about agency, knowledge, and institutions.

The Beginning of Infinity

David Deutsch, 2011 · recommended by Brandon S. Byers

  1. Anything not forbidden by the laws of physics is achievable, given the right knowledge.
  2. Prophecy is impossible: you cannot predict new knowledge, only the conditions that produce it.
  3. Good institutions are not the ones that pick good rulers, but the ones that remove bad ideas quickly and without violence.
  4. Knowledge grows by conjecture and criticism, never by extracting it from data.

Magnifica Humanitas

Pope Leo XIV, 2026 · recommended by Luke Reeve

  1. Injustice concerns not only individual behaviour but also economic and institutional structures.
  2. Subsidiarity: strengthen the fabric of associations and communities, and avoid further centralization of power.
  3. The dignity of work, fair pay, and a family's real chance at a dignified life are linked.

Policy

How institutions and governments set the rules.

Science, the Endless Frontier

Vannevar Bush, 1945 · recommended by Brandon S. Byers

  1. Basic research is the pacemaker of technological progress.
  2. Government should fund basic research through an independent agency; the proposal led to the National Science Foundation in 1950.
  3. Scientific progress is essential to health, security, and prosperity, and none of these can be had without it.

Practice

How things get built and run.

Nothing here yet.