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
In the philosophic sense, observation shows and experiment teaches.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Observation and experimentation are crucial for gaining knowledge.
Claude Bernard highlights the importance of both observation and experimentation in the pursuit of knowledge. In philosophy and science, observation refers to the careful watching and noting of phenomena, while experimentation involves actively testing hypotheses to uncover truths. Together, they form the foundation of understanding the world around us.
Themes
ObservationExperimentKnowledgePhilosophyScience
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the scientific method, this quote can be emphasized to illustrate the importance of empirical study.
More from Claude Bernard
All quotes βWhen 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
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