Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society)
E22502
Nullius in verba is the Latin motto of the Royal Society, expressing a commitment to empirical evidence and independent verification over reliance on authority.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society) canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T178411 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society) Context triple: [Fellow of the Royal Society, hasMotto, Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society)]
-
A.
Royal Society
The Royal Society is the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences, renowned as one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious scientific institutions dedicated to promoting excellence in science.
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B.
Novum Organum
Novum Organum is a foundational philosophical work by Francis Bacon that introduced a new empirical method of scientific inquiry and helped shape the course of the Scientific Revolution.
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C.
Opticks
Opticks is Isaac Newton’s influential 1704 treatise that systematically explores the nature of light and color through experiments with prisms and lenses.
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D.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, and pioneer of the scientific method whose works laid the foundations for modern empirical science.
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E.
Latimer House Principles
The Latimer House Principles are a set of guidelines adopted by Commonwealth nations to safeguard good governance through the separation of powers, judicial independence, and accountability of the three branches of government.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society) Target entity description: Nullius in verba is the Latin motto of the Royal Society, expressing a commitment to empirical evidence and independent verification over reliance on authority.
-
A.
Royal Society
The Royal Society is the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences, renowned as one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious scientific institutions dedicated to promoting excellence in science.
-
B.
Novum Organum
Novum Organum is a foundational philosophical work by Francis Bacon that introduced a new empirical method of scientific inquiry and helped shape the course of the Scientific Revolution.
-
C.
Opticks
Opticks is Isaac Newton’s influential 1704 treatise that systematically explores the nature of light and color through experiments with prisms and lenses.
-
D.
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was an English philosopher, statesman, and pioneer of the scientific method whose works laid the foundations for modern empirical science.
-
E.
Latimer House Principles
The Latimer House Principles are a set of guidelines adopted by Commonwealth nations to safeguard good governance through the separation of powers, judicial independence, and accountability of the three branches of government.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Latin phrase
ⓘ
motto ⓘ |
| adoptedBy | Royal Society ⓘ |
| adoptionContext | founding of the Royal Society in the 17th century ⓘ |
| alternativeTranslationEn | Take nobody’s word for it ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
empiricism
ⓘ
scientific method ⓘ |
| category |
Latin mottos
ⓘ
scientific slogans ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
authority alone is insufficient justification for belief
ⓘ
claims should be tested by experiment and observation ⓘ |
| countryOfUse | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| describes | Royal Society’s commitment to evidence-based knowledge ⓘ |
| expresses |
importance of experimental proof
ⓘ
independence of judgment ⓘ skepticism toward argument from authority ⓘ |
| field |
philosophy of science
ⓘ
science ⓘ |
| grammaticalConstruction | prepositional phrase ⓘ |
| hasInfluenceOn |
culture of the Royal Society
ⓘ
norms of modern scientific practice ⓘ |
| hasPart |
in
ⓘ
nullius ⓘ verba ⓘ |
| language | Latin ⓘ |
| meaning | commitment to empirical evidence and independent verification over reliance on authority ⓘ |
| mottoOf | Royal Society ⓘ |
| mottoType | scientific motto ⓘ |
| nulliusCase | genitive singular ⓘ |
| nulliusMeaning | of no one ⓘ |
| opposes |
dogmatism in science
ⓘ
uncritical acceptance of authority ⓘ |
| organizationTypeOfUser | learned society ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | early modern empiricism ⓘ |
| script | Latin alphabet ⓘ |
| translationEn | On the word of no one ⓘ |
| usedAs |
symbol of intellectual independence
ⓘ
symbol of scientific integrity ⓘ |
| usedBy |
Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS)
ⓘ
surface form:
fellows of the Royal Society
|
| usedIn |
Royal Society coat of arms
ⓘ
Royal Society Publishing ⓘ
surface form:
Royal Society publications
|
| verbaCase | accusative plural ⓘ |
| verbaMeaning | words ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Nullius in verba (motto of the Royal Society) Description of subject: Nullius in verba is the Latin motto of the Royal Society, expressing a commitment to empirical evidence and independent verification over reliance on authority.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Fellow of the Royal Society