Lecture at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York (14 May 1921)
“Now and then philosophers invade the field of biological sciences with these beguiling generalizations, which tend to be unproductive, purely verbal solutions lacking in substance. At best, they may prove useful when viewed simply as working hypotheses.”
Advice for a Young Investigator (1897)
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Santiago Ramón y Cajal 6
Spanish neuroscientist 1852–1934Related quotes
Source: Toward a general theory of action (1951), p. 3
“The direction in which science will move is set by the philosophic world view of the scientists.”
How Should We Then Live : The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976), Chapter 1, Ancient Rome
Source: 1950s, A Reconstruction of Economics, 1950, p. 6
Context: There is no reason why an extraphysical general principle is necessarily to be avoided, since such principles could conceivably serve as useful working hypotheses. For the history of scientific research is full of examples in which it was very fruitful indeed to assume that certain objects or elements might be real, long before any procedures were known which would permit them to be observed directly.
Source: A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859), p. 31