Achinstein, Peter - The Book of Evidence

Once there was a dean at my university who was a scientist with high intelligence but low boiling point. One day at a faculty meeting, after I said something that displeased him, he replied, "Peter, you have never made a contribution of interest to scientists." Naturally, my first thought was to take offense. But trying to maintain a generous spirit, and believing that a highly intelligent dean offers personal insults only in private, I decided what he really meant was not the singular "you" but the plural one. "You philosophers of science," he meant, "have nothing to offer us scientists."