The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Claude Levi-StraussRead
The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of inquiry and curiosity in scientific exploration rather than simply arriving at correct conclusions.
Claude Levi-Strauss highlights that the essence of being a scientist lies in the ability to ask pertinent and thought-provoking questions rather than merely providing accurate answers. This approach fosters deeper understanding and innovative thinking, suggesting that progress in science is driven more by the quest for knowledge than the possession of definitive solutions.
In practice
In a lecture on scientific methodology, one might use this quote to emphasize the significance of questioning.
The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions.
Objects are what matter. Only they carry the evidence that throughout the centuries something really happened among human beings.
Civilization has ceased to be that delicate flower which was preserved and painstakingly cultivated in one or two sheltered areas of a soil rich in wild species ... Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in the process of creating a mass civilization, as beetroot is grown in the mass. Henceforth, man's daily bill of fare will consist only of this one item.
The world began without man, and it will complete itself without him.
Nor must we forget that in science there are no final truths.
Our system is the height of absurdity, since we treat the culprit both as a child, so as to have the right to punish him, and as an adult, in order to deny him consolation.
It is my supposition that the Universe in not only queerer than we imagine, is queerer than we can imagine.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics has the same degree of truth as the statement that if you throw a tumblerful of water into the sea, you cannot get the same tumblerful of water out again.
Imagine the progress that could be made by gathering together the world's scientists, engineers, physicians, oncologists, epidemiologists and more in a super-team effort to end cancer.
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
I don't walk into the lab in the morning thinking, 'I am a woman, and I will carry out an experiment that will conquer the world.' I am a scientist, not male or female. A scientist.
God used beautiful mathematics in creating the world.
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