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About this quote

What does it mean?
Poincare compares science to a house built from facts, noting that facts alone are not science any more than stones are a house.
In plain terms
Facts alone are not science just as stones alone are not a house; order is needed.
What can you take from it?
Science requires organizing facts, not just accumulating them.

Where it applies

  • understanding scientific method
  • research organization
  • knowledge management

Putting it to work

  • teaching research methods
  • structuring data
  • planning projects

Questions to consider

  • How do facts become knowledge?
  • What transforms data into science?

Another view

Accumulating facts is still a necessary step before organization can occur.

More from Henri Poincare

  1. Les mathematiciens n'etudient pas des objets, mais des relations entre les objets; il leur est donc indifferent de remplacer ces objets par d'autres, pourvu qu…

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  2. Le temps et l'espace... Ce n'est pas la nature qui nous les impose, c'est nous qui les imposons a la nature parce que nous les trouvons commodes.

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions egalement commodes, qui l'une et l'autre nous dispensent de reflechir.

    Permalink to quote #5

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