Exact knowledge is the enemy of vitalism.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that an obsession with precise knowledge can hinder the appreciation of the dynamic, life-giving aspects of existence.
Francis Crick's statement points to a tension between the pursuit of exact scientific knowledge and the more fluid, unpredictable nature of life, often associated with vitalism. He implies that an excessive focus on dissecting and understanding the minutiae of biological processes can overshadow the essence and spontaneity of life itself, which is vital and cannot be fully captured by rigid definitions and formulas.
In practice
In a debate on the balance between scientific accuracy and the essence of living systems.
One can say, looking at the papers in this symposium, that the elucidation of the genetic code is indeed a great achievement. It is, in a sense, the key to molecular biology because it shows how the great polymer languages, the nucleic acid language and the protein language, are linked together.
A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong
It is essential to understand our brains in some detail if we are to assess correctly our place in this vast and complicated universe we see all around us.
To produce a really good biological theory one must try to see through the clutter produced by evolution to the basic mechanisms lying beneath them, realizing that they are likely to be overlaid by other, secondary mechanisms. What seems to physicists to be a hopelessly complicated process may have been what nature found simplest, because nature could only build on what was already there.
It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.
In the fullness of time, educated people will believe there is no soul independent of the body, and hence no life after death.
Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose.
All things must; man is the only creature that wills.
Our fathers founded the first secular government that was ever founded in this world. Recollect that. The first secular government - the first government that said every church has exactly the same rights and no more; every religion has the same rights, and no more.
A man who causes fear cannot be _x000D_ free from fear.
Of all the statist violations of individual rights in a mixed economy, the military draft is the worst. It is an abrogation of rights. It negates manβs fundamental right-the right to life-and establishes the fundamental principle of statism: that a manβs life belongs to the state, and the state may claim it by compelling him to sacrifice it in battle. Once that principle is accepted, the rest is only a matter of time.
In the water I saw my father's face, and that face saw the face of its father, and so on, and so on, reflecting backward to the beginning of time, to the face of God, in whose image we were created.
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