No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
Interpretation
Scientific theories are provisional and subject to change rather than being seen as absolute truths.
In this quote, Karl Popper emphasizes the idea that scientific theories should not be considered as definitive truths. Instead, they are always open to questioning, revision, and falsification. This notion highlights the dynamic and evolving nature of scientific inquiry, suggesting that the pursuit of knowledge is an ongoing process rather than a conclusion to be firmly established.
In practice
In a science class discussing the nature of scientific theories.
The growth of our knowledge is the result of a process closely resembling what Darwin called 'natural selection'; that is, the natural selection of hypotheses: our knowledge consists, at every moment, of those hypotheses which have shown their (comparative) fitness by surviving so far in their struggle for existence, a competitive struggle which eliminates those hypotheses which are unfit.
If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.
A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others
Thus science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices.
I am opposed to looking upon logic as a kind of game. ... One might think that it is a matter of choice or convention which logic one adopts. I disagree with this view.
We live in a time when the words impossible and unsolvable are no longer part of the scientific community's vocabulary. Each day we move closer to trials that will not just minimize the symptoms of disease and injury but eliminate them.
Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.
There are as many species as the infinite being created diverse forms in the beginning, which, following the laws of generation, produced many others, but always similar to them: therefore there are as many species as we have different structures before us today.
Surgery is the red flower that blooms among the leaves and thorns that are the rest of medicine.
True science teaches us to doubt and, in ignorance, to refrain.
Science and technology revolutionize our lives, but memory, tradition and myth frame our response.
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