Do not imagine that mathematics is hard and crabbed, and repulsive to common sense. It is merely the etherealization of common sense.
Lord KelvinRead
I need scarcely say that the beginning and maintenance of life on earth is absolutely and infinitely beyond the range of all sound speculation in dynamical science. The only contribution of dynamics to theoretical biology is absolute negation of automatic commencement or automatic maintenance of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The origins and sustenance of life cannot be adequately explained by dynamics alone.
Lord Kelvin's quote emphasizes the limitations of physical sciences, particularly dynamics, in explaining how life originates and continues on Earth. He asserts that true understanding of life's beginnings and maintenance goes beyond what can be inferred or mechanistically deduced from scientific principles, highlighting the complexity and perhaps the mystery surrounding biological existence.
Themes
LifeScienceDynamicsBiologyOrigin
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the challenges of explaining the origins of life in a science class.
More from Lord Kelvin
All quotes →We only know God in His works, but we are forced by science to admit and to believe with absolute confidence in a Directive Power-in an influence other than physical, or dynamical, or electrical forces.
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In science there is only physics; all the rest is stamp collecting.
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There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.
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Let nobody be afraid of true freedom of thought. Let us be free in thought and criticism; but, with freedom, we are bound to come to the conclusion that science is not antagonistic to religion, but a help to it.
Lord KelvinRead
Science is bound, by the everlasting vow of honour, to face fearlessly every problem which can be fairly presented to it.
Lord KelvinRead
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