Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that an obsession with precise knowledge can hinder the appreciation of the dynamic, life-giving aspects of existence.
Francis Crick's statement points to a tension between the pursuit of exact scientific knowledge and the more fluid, unpredictable nature of life, often associated with vitalism. He implies that an excessive focus on dissecting and understanding the minutiae of biological processes can overshadow the essence and spontaneity of life itself, which is vital and cannot be fully captured by rigid definitions and formulas.
In practice
In a debate on the balance between scientific accuracy and the essence of living systems.
One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us.
To produce a really good biological theory one must try to see through the clutter produced by evolution to the basic mechanisms lying beneath them, realizing that they are likely to be overlaid by other, secondary mechanisms. What seems to physicists to be a hopelessly complicated process may have been what nature found simplest, because nature could only build on what was already there.
It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
In the fullness of time, educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death.
Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army and calls it a war.
I am an idealist. I don't know where I'm going but I'm on my way.
Any religion is forever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.
There is no free society without silence, without the internal and external spaces of solitude in which the individual freedom can develop.
The magic of America is that we're a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.
The several states composing the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government
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