Our Mission
Reditus ad Naturam(return to nature)
Over the past 75 years, science has mutated into a rigid, institutionalized machine. What was once a wild and wondrous pursuit has been reduced to dogma, boxed in by falsificationism and consumed by the paradigm of logical positivism. In our worship of rigor, we have sacrificed imagination. The result has been stagnation, not progress.
Science is not sterile method carried out in uncharismatic labs, chasing incremental gains in order to publish in some journal. Nor is it merely the so-called "scientific method." Science is something far more beautiful, and broadly defined. It is a primitive human instinct: the caveman hurling a rock to trace its arc, the child gazing in awe at the stars, the alchemist stumbling into chemistry by accident. It is a rich, messy, human pursuit, and it must be freed. At its core, the fundamental problem facing science is epistemological. We must find new ways of 'doing' science, and embrace a culture of science that is more open, ambitious, and methodologically plural.
We believe in a reditus ad naturam — a return of science to its natural, anarchic state. Only then can it fulfill its promise and lead us into a future of true discovery and wonder.
Our Core Principles
Methodological Pluralism
As inspired by Against Method (1975) by Paul Feyerabend, we believe that science, when it truly moves, is fundamentally anarchic. Feyerabend called this epistemological anarchism, where "anything goes" becomes a necessary antidote to stagnation. If you look at the real history of progress, you will not find pristine methodology. You will find radical individuals with counter-inductive ideas, standing in defiance of their peers and the dominant paradigms of their time. They often achieved progress through means other than method or empiricism. Sometimes it was argumentation. Sometimes it was stories, rhetoric, or even propaganda.
To bring science back to life, we must create space for diverse approaches. Not every idea must be testable by today's standards. Some begin as instinct, contradiction, or philosophical rebellion. A living science embraces methodological variety. Rigor where needed, chaos where fruitful.
Individualism
Scientific progress is made by people, not processes. It is born from singular minds with strange intuitions and unforgiving visions. Scientists should be bold. They should be envied, admired, and remembered. Children should look up to them not as lab coat cogs but as the giants they once were. People who saw further because they dared to look.
Historically, science was animated by individuals who did not seek consensus or comfort. They pursued the edges of reality itself, often at personal cost. Their ideas were not filtered through committees or optimized for grant acceptance. They stood alone when they had to and the world bent around them.
We want to support those kinds of scientists. Not systems. Not machines. Minds.
Openness
Openness is not about open-source code. In fact, there are several examples of closed-source labs achieving incredible progress while embracing internal openness. What matters is not code visibility but the dissolving of artificial boundaries between disciplines, between worldviews, between types of knowledge.
We believe in a culture where physicists talk to poets, biologists draw from painters, and historians shape models of the future. Openness means ideas flow freely, unburdened by institutional silos or disciplinary pride. True openness is not a licensing format. It is a state of mind.
Self-Sufficiency
Decentralization, for us, means self-sufficiency. Science must escape its dependence on fragile institutions, fickle funding, and credentialist hierarchies. We imagine a new frontier, a wild and open zone where science can happen again in its raw, untamed form. No administrators. No permission structures. Just the work.
We want to build this frontier. A place where small labs, lone researchers, and rogue thinkers can explore without waiting for a grant cycle to begin. A space where the tools are accessible, the culture is fertile, and the work is owned by those who do it. Science should be something one can do without asking for approval. Something you can wake up and build with your own hands.
Our Approach
The Heterodox Labs Foundation operates through four primary channels:
Methodological Research
We are a research lab; our topic of inquiry is the scientific process itself, as employed across all domains of science. We aim to explore, discover, and test new ways of 'doing' science.
Grants
We believe the future of science is in the fringe. As such, we will be funding grants for bold researchers to explore radical, systematically ridiculed areas of science.
Fellowship
We are funding college students to, rather than join an existing lab, create their own research initiative and have the cash, resources, and support to explore their most bold, radical ideas.
Cultural Engagement
We host events, write essays, design merch, and engage in public discourse surrounding epistemology and the culture of science.
"Given any rule, however 'fundamental' or 'necessary' for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite."
— Paul Feyerabend