QuoteProject
We must alter theory to adapt it to nature, but not nature to adapt it to theory.‎
Claude Bernard
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Theories should be adjusted to reflect natural phenomena rather than forcing nature to fit our theories.

Claude Bernard emphasizes the importance of aligning scientific theories with the realities of nature. Instead of trying to reshape natural occurrences to fit pre-existing theories, we should develop our understanding of theories based on observations and facts derived from nature itself. This approach fosters a more accurate comprehension of the scientific world.

Themes

TheoryNatureScienceAdaptationUnderstanding

In practice

Example use cases

During a scientific conference discussing the latest research findings.

More from Claude Bernard

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
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.
Claude BernardRead
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.
Claude BernardRead
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.
Claude BernardRead
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Claude BernardRead
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.
Claude BernardRead

Similar quotes

We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
Charles DarwinRead
Of course, we would love to know more about the exact moment of Big Bang, but interposing an outside intelligence does nothing to add to that knowledge, as we still know nothing about the creation of that intelligence.
Richard DawkinsRead
Anyone who attempts to generate random numbers by deterministic means is, of course, living in a state of sin.
John Von NeumannRead
The impression sometimes created among the public is that scientists are working away in their labs, and maybe they're not always thinking about the implications of their work. But we are.
Jennifer DoudnaRead
It doesn't matter what country or what political system you are from. Space brings you together.
Valentina TereshkovaRead
Modern science should indeed arouse in all of us a humility before the immensity of the unexplored and a tolerance for crazy hypotheses.
Martin GardnerRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.