Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
Claude BernardRead
First causes are outside the realm of science.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that fundamental reasons or origins of things cannot be fully explained by scientific inquiry.
Claude Bernard's quote emphasizes the limitations of science in addressing the ultimate causes of existence. It implies that while science is invaluable for understanding the mechanics of the natural world, it may not reach the deeper philosophical questions surrounding the origins and fundamental purposes of life and existence, which often lie beyond empirical observation and reasoning.
In practice
In a lecture about the limitations of scientific inquiry, one might use this quote to illustrate philosophical perspectives.
Tout est poison, rien n'est poison, tout est une question de dose. Everything is poisonous, nothing is poisonous, it is all a matter of dose.
When a physician is called to a patient, he should decide on the diagnosis, then the prognosis, and then the treatment. ... Physicians must know the evolution of the disease, its duration and gravity in order to predict its course and outcome. Here statistics intervene to guide physicians, by teaching them the proportion of mortal cases, and if observation has also shown that the successful and unsuccessful cases can be recognized by certain signs, then the prognosis is more certain.
The goal of scientific physicians in their own science ... is to reduce the indeterminate. Statistics therefore apply only to cases in which the cause of the facts observed is still indeterminate.
Theories are like a stairway; by climbing, science widens its horizon more and more, because theories embody and necessarily include proportionately more facts as they advance.
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Now, a living organism is nothing but a wonderful machine endowed with the most marvellous properties and set going by means of the most complex and delicate mechanism.
We will be judged. There will be an accounting; there will be a reckoning sooner or later. It will either come from ourselves and our own conscience, or it will come from our kids when they ask that inconvenient question: 'What were you doing when they turned those kids back from the border?'
true Christians consider themselves not as satisfying some rigorous creditor, but as discharging a debt of gratitude
An act cannot be defined by the end sought by the actor, for an identical system of behaviour may be adjustable to too many different ends without altering its nature.
True karate is this: that in daily life one's mind and body be trained and developed in a spirit of humility, and that in critical times, one be devoted utterly to the cause of justice.
My philosophy is simple: It's a down-home, common, horse-sense approach to things.
But I have to add - and this answers your other question - this catholicity in time and in space is only meaningful for me if there is, at the same time, a concentration on the Gospel.
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