We don't love qualities; we love a person; sometimes by reason of their defects as well as their qualities.
Jacques MaritainRead
Since science's competence extends to observable and measurable phenomena, not to the inner being of things, and to the means, not to the ends of human life, it would be nonsense to expect that the progress of science will provide men with a new type of metaphysics, ethics, or religion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science can only analyze observable phenomena and does not address existential or moral questions.
Jacques Maritain emphasizes that while science excels at understanding and measuring the physical world, it cannot provide answers to deeper existential, ethical, or metaphysical questions. This limitation suggests that human life requires perspectives beyond empirical evidence, indicating that metaphysics and ethics lie outside the purview of scientific inquiry.
Themes
SciencePhilosophyEthicsMetaphysicsHuman Life
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the limits of scientific inquiry, this quote can help illustrate the necessity of philosophical thought.
More from Jacques Maritain
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We do not need a truth to serve us, we need a truth that we can serve
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Every work of art reaches man in his inner powers. It reaches him more profoundly and insidiously than any rational proposition, either cogent demonstration or sophistry. For it strikes him with two terrible weapons, Intuition and Beauty, and at the single root in him of all his energies... Art and Poetry awaken the dreams of man, and his longings, and reveal to him some of the abysses he has in himself.
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The aim of education is to guide young persons in the process _x000D_ through which they shape themselves as human persons-armed with knowledge, strength of judgment, and moral virtues-while at the same time conveying to them the spiritual heritage of the nation and the civilization in which they are involved.
Jacques MaritainRead
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