"[I]t is important to determine at what point to apply doubt, so as to distinguish it from scepticism, and to show how scientific doubt becomes an element of the greatest certainty. The sceptic disbelieves in science and believes in himself; he believes enough in himself to dare deny science and to assert that it is not subject to definite, fixed laws. The doubter is a true man of science; he doubts only himself and his interpretations, but he believes in science; in the experimental sciences, he even accepts a criterion of absolute scientific principle."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Part I, Ch. II, p. 52
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Claude_Bernard
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"Science does not permit exceptions."
"Science admits no exceptions; otherwise there would be no determinism in science, or rather, there would be no science."
"The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies…"
"All the vital mechanisms, varied as they are, have only one object, that of preserving constant the conditions of lif…"
"The mental never influences the physical. It is always the physical that modifies the mental, and when we think that …"
"Considered in itself, the experimental method is nothing but reasoning by whose help we methodically submit our ideas…"
"[T]he science of life […] is a superb and dazzlingly lighted hall which may be reached only by passing through a long…"
"In sciences of observation, man observes and reasons experimentally, but he does not experiment; and in this sense we…"
"Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also m…"
"[T]hey make poor observations, because they choose among the results of their experiments only what suits their objec…"