Therefore in medicine we ought to know the causes of sickness and health.
Interpretation
Understanding the causes of illness and wellness is essential in medicine.
Avicenna emphasizes the importance of comprehending the underlying causes of both sickness and health in the field of medicine. This perspective encourages a holistic approach to healthcare where physicians not only treat symptoms but also seek to understand the root causes of ailments to promote true healing.
In practice
During a medical conference, a speaker quoted Avicenna to highlight the need for preventative measures in healthcare.
Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials.
Is it the fault of wine if a fool drinks it and goes stumbling into darkness?
As to the mental essence, we find it in infants devoid of every mental form.
An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.
It is in the nature of water ... to become transformed into earth through a predominating earthy virtue; ... it is in the nature of earth to become transformed into water through a predominating aqueous virtue.
I cannot give any scientist of any age better advice than this: the intensity of a conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing over whether it is true or not.
First you guess. Don't laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it.
And now the announcement of Watson and Crick about DNA. This is for me the real proof of the existence of God.
A science is not mere knowledge, it is knowledge which has undergone a process of intellectual digestion. It is the grasp of many things brought together in one, and hence is its power; for, properly speaking, it is Science that is power, not Knowledge.
Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans favour research using embryonic stem cells and yet politicians continue to pander to the outspoken religious minority that is hampering efforts to develop this potentially valuable technology.
I feel like every time a door is opened by science, suddenly there are a hundred doors that need to get opened. That's what makes it an everlasting, interesting experience to go through.
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