exact citation of source wanted:
"We learn not from experience, but from experiment." |
Request for Question Clarification by
blader-ga
on
30 Apr 2002 12:00 PDT
Greetings from Google!
Is the given quote exact, or a paraphrase?
Best Regards,
blader-ga
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Clarification of Question by
trulyga-ga
on
30 Apr 2002 14:48 PDT
The quotation is exact, or very near exact; the whole idea is a
contrast of mere experience -- what happens to one by chance -- with
experiment, which is deliberately sought experience, designed
explicitly for the purpose of learning. Just the opposite of what
Camus is quoted as saying.
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Request for Question Clarification by
blader-ga
on
30 Apr 2002 20:51 PDT
Hi trulyga-ga!
Thanks for the clarification. Now I'm beginning to think though, that
there really is no answer to the question. Either it is a rough
paraphrase, or that is just a generic quote with no source. The
closest I could find is "Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will
learn at no other."
- Benjamin Franklin. I'm keeping my eyes peeled though! =)
Best Regards,
blader-ga
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Request for Question Clarification by
missy-ga
on
17 May 2002 23:24 PDT
Hello, truly!
It's quite difficult to give an exact source for a phrase that is
"exact, or very near exact". I've spent some time poking around for
this (I'm intrigued) and have found nothing close by way of exact
quote, but rather, that this is a *philosophy*, a school of thought.
There are a number of well known scholars who held this as a belief,
but no such quote has turned up anywhere.
missy-ga
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Request for Question Clarification by
missy-ga
on
18 May 2002 17:46 PDT
Truly,
I think I've got it. In fact, I'm 99% sure.
But the key words are a little different. Are you sure it's
"experiment" and not "reason"?
missy-ga
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Clarification of Question by
trulyga-ga
on
18 May 2002 23:33 PDT
Dear Missy,
Yes, the quotation whose author I'm seeking definitely contrasts
"experience" and "experiment"; the wording I gave when I posted the
question is very close to exact, if not perfectly exact.
--Truly
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Request for Question Clarification by
missy-ga
on
19 May 2002 20:46 PDT
Argh, well, that shoots what I thought it was.
The phrase rung a hard bell in my head - Immanuel Kant says something
quite similar in "Kritik der reiner Vernunft". He uses the word
"reason", however. The German idiom is such that "reason" and
"experiment" are often interchangeable, depending on context, but your
clarification seems to rule this out.
Do you have, by chance, a frame of reference for this quote? A rough
time frame? A little context? I strongly suspect the author is one
of the great Rationalists, but with only the quote to go on, we could
dig for years and still not find it.
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Clarification of Question by
trulyga-ga
on
19 May 2002 23:36 PDT
Dear Missy,
Sorry to disappoint you, but the point of the quotation, again, is
the contrast between "experience" and "experiment." And how I wish I
could give you some more information about the dictum! I saw it, many
years ago, in a printed collection of such sayings; no information
about its source was given, nor do I remember the name of the book in
which it was given. I think the author is probably English or
American, since I believe that it's only in English that the the words
for experience and experiment have such a verbal parallel. And the
diction seems to me to indicate a date no earlier than late nineteenth
century, more probably twentieth. But even if I'm right in those
guesses, they hardly pinpoint any individual -- and that's all I have,
even in the way of guesses. I've asked many people in the years since
I saw it for any information about it, and no one has been able to
help; I've posted my question on the mailing list for reference
librarians, Stumpers-L, to no avail.
It may very well be that the dictum is just the bright idea of some
obscure person, and that it's never appeared in print anywhere but the
obscure book in which I found it, perhaps twenty-five years ago. I
think it would be close to miraculous if its author could be
identified, and I wish I could offer more than $50 to anyone who can
do it; I offered that amount because that's the upper limit set by
Google Answers.
If you give up, I won't blame you; it's a heartbreaker.
Truly
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Request for Question Clarification by
missy-ga
on
20 May 2002 13:35 PDT
Truly,
It's a terrific stumper question, and one that's going to drive me
*crazy* long after your posting expires. Shame on you for making a
poor innocent researcher so dreadfully curious! *grin*
Do come back and let us know if you ever stumble on the source on your
own, OK? For my part, I'll be keeping my eyes open for the source, if
only to soothe my own curiosity.
Much luck,
missy-ga
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Request for Question Clarification by
morris-ga
on
20 May 2002 17:02 PDT
Would you settle for "Experience is knowledge derived from experiment."
morris-ga
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Clarification of Question by
trulyga-ga
on
20 May 2002 18:34 PDT
Dear Morris,
Your find is the closest so far -- it at least contains the key
words "experience" and "experiment" -- but it's not the quotation I'm
seeking; instead of emphasizing the difference, almost the conflict,
between the two, it makes experience the product of experiment. As
the carnival barker says, close but no cigar. If you don't mind
revealing a trade secret -- who said the words that you've suggested?
--Truly
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Request for Question Clarification by
morris-ga
on
21 May 2002 07:40 PDT
The quote was from Ellen G. White,
http://www.whiteestate.org/devotional/ag/09_01.asp
I spent a couple hours doing Boolean searches with "NEAR" as in
experience NEAR experiment NEAR etc...
on AltaVista, since I figured some sharp people already had a week to
try it on Google. Maybe I'll go down to the Internet Cafe this
afternoon and give it another shot.
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