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About this quote

What does it mean?
Jeffers argues that abstract systems like science symbolize reality but never truly touch the raw truth of existence.
In plain terms
Science models reality but does not fully grasp the truth of it.
What can you take from it?
Abstract knowledge can miss the direct experience of truth.

Where it applies

  • scientific study
  • philosophical debate
  • learning

Putting it to work

  • balance theory with experience
  • question models

Questions to consider

  • Can we know ultimate truth?
  • Is math reality?

Another view

Science has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to touch truth through prediction.

More from Robinson Jeffers

  1. I will have shepherds for my philosophers, Tall dreary men lying on the hills all night Watching the stars, let their dogs watch the sheep. And I'll have lunat…

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  2. Here is a symbol in which Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes.

    Permalink to quote #28
  3. He is no God of love, no justice of a little city like Dante's Florence, no anthropoid God Making commandments: this is the God who does not care and will neve…

    Permalink to quote #25

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