"A theory is merely a scientific idea controlled by experiment." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"An anticipative idea or an hypothesis is, then, the necessary starting point for all experimental reasoning. Without it, we could not make any investigation at all nor learn anything; we could only pile up sterile observations. If we experiment without a preconceived idea, we should move at random […]" (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Considered by itself, the experimental method is nothing but reasoning by whose help we methodically submit our ideas to experience, - the experience of facts." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"It seems, indeed, a necessary weakness of our mind to be able to reach truth only across a multitude of errors and obstacles." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"If the facts used as a basis of reasoning are ill-established or erroneous, everything will crumble or be falsified; and it is thus that errors in scientific theories most often originate in errors of fact." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor observations." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Observation, then, is what shows facts.; experiment is what teaches about facts and gives experience in relation to anything." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Only when a phenomenon includes conditions as yet undefined, can we compile; we must learn, therefore, that we compile statistics only when we cannot possibly help it." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Only within very narrow boundaries can man observe the phenomena which surround him; most of them naturally escape his senses, and mere observation is not enough." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Pile up facts or observations as we may, we shall be none the wiser. To learn, we must necessarily reason about what we have observed, compare the facts and judge them by other facts used as controls." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"Speaking concretely, when we say ‘making experiments or making observations’, we mean that we devote ourselves to investigation and to research, that we make attempts and trials in order to gain facts from which the mind, through reasoning, may draw knowledge or instruction.
Speaking in the abstract, when we say, ‘relying on observation and gaining experience’, we mean that observation is the mind’s support in reasoning, and experience the mind’s support in deciding, or still better, the fruit of exact reasoning applied to the interpretation of facts.
Observation, then, is what shows facts; experiment is what teaches about facts and gives experience in relation to anything." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
"When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted." (Claude Bernard, "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine", 1865)
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