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Every time people cite a principle of theoretical physics in support of a metaphysical doctrine or physical dogma, they commit a mistake, for they attribute to this principle a meaning not its own, an import not belonging to it.

— Pierre Duhem The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

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More quotes by Pierre Duhem

Agreement with experiment is the sole criteria of truth for a physical theory.

The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

A physical theory reputed to be satisfactory by the sectarians of one metaphysical school will be rejected by the partisans of another school.

The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

Les hypothèses ne sont point le produit d'une création soudaine, mais le résultat d'une évolution progressive.
[Hypotheses are not the product of sudden creation, but the result of progressive évolution.]

Now, a symbol is not, properly speaking, either true or false; it is, rather, something more or less well selected to stand for the reality it represents, and pictures that reality in a more or less precise, or a more or less detailed manner.

The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

The one who contributed most to break down the barrier between physical method and metaphysical method, and to confound their domains, so clearly distinguished in the Aristotelian philosophy, was surely Descartes.

The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory (1906)

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