Over-restricting thought to verifiable facts invites the charlatanism it meant to prevent

Evidence

Believing that without strict limitation to the verification of facts and probability theory, the cognitive spirit would prove all too susceptible to charlatanism and superstition, it makes a parched ground ready and avid for charlatanism and superstition. Just as prohibition has always offered access to the poisonous product, so the obstruction of the theoretical faculty paved the way for political error and madness. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 20

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes later critiques of positivism and the fact-value dichotomy; connects to the reader’s theme of empirical narrowness breeding irrationality. — connects to: Concepts carry excess meaning that reveals the deceptiveness of immediate facts — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 426; Power-laden words constrain how and whether people can think certain thoughts.; A claim’s falsity does not bar it from structuring thought — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 179 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Concepts carry excess meaning that reveals the deceptiveness of immediate facts #expands (0.78) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 426
• Power-laden words constrain how and whether people can think certain thoughts. #expands (0.75)
• A claim’s falsity does not bar it from structuring thought #expands (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 179