No doubt science cannot admit of compromises, and can only bring out the complete truth. Hence there must be controversy, and the strife may be, and sometimes must be, sharp. But must it even then be personal? Does it help science to attack the man as well as the statement? On the contrary, has not science the noble privilege of carrying on its controversies without personal quarrels?
Interpretation
Science seeks truth and must engage in controversy, but it should remain objective and avoid personal attacks.
Rudolf Virchow emphasizes the importance of maintaining objectivity in scientific debates. He argues that while science inevitably involves controversy to uncover the complete truth, the discourse should focus on the ideas rather than personal character attacks. This approach preserves the integrity of scientific inquiry and allows for constructive dialogue that advances knowledge without descending into personal animosity.
In practice
This quote can be used during a scientific conference to emphasize the importance of objective debate.
Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale. Medicine, as a social science, as the science of human beings, has the obligation to point out problems and to attempt their theoretical solution: the politician, the practical anthropologist, must find the means for their actual solution. The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and social problems fall to a large extent within their jurisdiction.
Medical education does not exist to provide students with a way of making a living, but to ensure the health of the community.
The physicians are the natural attorneys of the poor, and the social problems should largely be solved by them.
If popular medicine gave the people wisdom as well as knowledge, it would be the best protection for scientific and well-trained physicians.
Disease is not something personal and special, but only a manifestation of life under modified conditions, operating according to the same laws as apply to the living body at all times, from the first moment until death.
Belief has no place as far as science reaches, and may be first permitted to take root where science stops.
It's important that everyone realizes how much scientists still don't know.
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.
A page from a journal of modern experimental physics will be as mysterious to the uninitiated as a Tibetan mandala. Both are records of enquiries into the nature of the universe.
...99 percent confident that the world really was getting warmer and that there was a high degree of probability that it was due to human-made greenhouse gases.
The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds.
The human species took a crucial step forward when its vocal musculature came under operant control in the production of speech sounds. Indeed, it is possible that all the distinctive achievements of the species can be traced to that one genetic change.
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