C'este donc par l'étude des mathématiques, et seulement par elle, que l'on peut se faire une idée juste et approfondie de ce que c'est qu'une science.
Auguste ComteRead
nd now that man's history has been for the first time systematically considered as a whole, and has been found to be, like all other phenomena, subject to invariable laws, the preparatory labours of modern Science are ended.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of organizing and understanding human history through a scientific lens.
Auguste Comte suggests that humanity's history can be analyzed just like any other natural phenomenon, which has led to the end of preliminary efforts in modern science. By recognizing that history follows invariable laws, Comte argues for the establishment of sociology as a discipline that uses scientific methods to understand societal development and human behavior.
In practice
This quote can be used to start a discussion about the importance of sociology in understanding societal changes.
C'este donc par l'étude des mathématiques, et seulement par elle, que l'on peut se faire une idée juste et approfondie de ce que c'est qu'une science.
The sacred formula of positivism: love as a principle, the order as a foundation, and progress as a goal.
Language forms a kind of wealth, which all can make use of at once without causing any diminution of the store, and which thus admits a complete community of enjoyment; for all, freely participating in the general treasure, unconsciously aid in its preservation.
If we do not allow free thinking in chemistry or biology, why should we allow it in morals or politics?
To understand a science it is necessary to know its history.
It was not possible to formulate the laws of quantum mechanics in a fully consistent way without reference to the consciousness.
If you take 100 breast-cancer samples, 100 types of cancer have 100 different hallmarks of mutated genes. You could be nihilistic and say, 'Oh, God, we'll never be able to tackle this!' But there are deep, systematic, organizational principles at work in all that diversity.
To turn Karl [Popper]'s view on its head, it is precisely the abandonment of critical discourse that marks the transition of science. Once a field has made the transition, critical discourse recurs only at moments of crisis when the bases of the field are again in jeopardy. Only when they must choose between competing theories do scientists behave like philosophers.
To me quantum computation is a new and deeper and better way to understand the laws of physics, and hence understanding physical reality as a whole.
The universe has really never made things in ones. The Earth is special and everything else is different? No, we’ve got seven other planets. The sun? No, the sun is one of those dots in the night sky. The Milky Way? No, it’s one of a hundred billion galaxies. And the universe - maybe it’s countless other universes.
Clearly, unless thinking beings inevitably wipe themselves out soon after developing technology, extraterrestrial intelligence could often be millions or billions of years in advance of us. We're the galaxy's noodling newbies.
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