“We must, for example, use language, and our language is necessarily steeped in preconceived ideas.”

— Henri Poincaré , book Science and Hypothesis

Source: Science and Hypothesis (1901), Ch. IX: Hypotheses in Physics, Tr. George Bruce Halsted (1913)
Context: It is often said that experiments should be made without preconceived ideas. That is impossible. Not only would it make every experiment fruitless, but even if we wished to do so, it could not be done. Every man has his own conception of the world, and this he cannot so easily lay aside. We must, for example, use language, and our language is necessarily steeped in preconceived ideas.

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Henri Poincaré 49

French mathematician, physicist, engineer, and philosopher … 1854–1912

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“We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.”

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