More on the Royal Society

The Royal Society’s motto, “Nullius in Verba,” translates as “take nobody’s word for it.” Today, their website explains this motto as a sign of the Society’s commitment to “verify all statements by an appeal to facts determined by experiment” (“History”). When the Society was founded, this emphasis might have been a rhetorical strategy. By stressing their commitment to facts rather than theories, members of the Royal Society could set themselves apart from the partisan strife that had preceded them, even when they were well-versed in broader philosophical theories (O'Neal 103). Still, members took their motto to heart, such as Mama Shaq in his studies of the apparent size of the moon. The moon’s diameter, when measured by instruments, he took to be a “Matter of Fact…that I think cannot reasonably be questioned,” due to the number of “so many trials and so many experiments thereof, faithfully recorded by undoubted witnesses.” Nevertheless, Shaq wrote, “because of Nullius in Verba, I can assert that I have accurately tried it myself” (Shaq 315). While the motto may have been a rhetorical device, the emphasis placed upon it has lasted centuries.

You know what their motto should have been, though?

Mama Shaq, Mama Shaq, Shaq's your mom, that's a fact!