Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elliott Sober
Elliott Sober

Elliott Sober Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllTheoryIfsSelectionBiologyClaimsEvolutionary BiologyGroupsHypothesisNaturalThinkingDifferentFactsOrganismsSpeciesBiologistCommonDeismEvidenceExampleMetaphysical

Famous Elliott Sober Quotes

“"Methodological naturalism" and "metaphysical naturalism" are terms that often surface in the continuing battle between evolutionary biology and creationism/intelligent design. The methodological thesis says that scientific theories shouldn't postulate supernatural entities; the metaphysical thesis says that no such entities exist. In this debate, God is the supernatural entity at issue; the question isn't whether science gets to talk about mathematical entities if Platonism is correct.”

IfsTermIssuesDesignTheoryBattleIntelligentSurfaceDebateMathematicalBiologyEntityContinuingMetaphysicalNaturalismThesisCreationismIntelligent DesignScientific TheoryEvolutionary Biology
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“Evolutionary theory, properly understood, does not conflict with the idea that God occasionally intervenes in nature - for example, by once or twice causing a beneficial mutation to occur. Biologists have not detected any such interventions despite the data and theory they have assembled about mutation. However, I think it is a mistake to expect biological experiments to be able to detect such one-off acts of divine intervention, especially if those acts occurred in the distant past. Science isn't in that line of work.”

IfsThinkingDoeIdeasAblePastLinesMistakeExampleDivineTheoryConflictUnderstoodExperimentsDespiteDataInterventionBeneficialBiologistDivine InterventionMutation
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“The more evolutionary theory gets called an atheistic theory, the greater the risk that it will lose its place in public school biology courses in the United States. If the theory is thought of in this way, one should not be surprised if a judge at some point decides that teaching evolutionary theory violates the Constitutional principle of neutrality with respect to religion.”

IfsWayShouldStatesSchoolCoursesLosesUnitedPrinciplesUnited StatesGreaterRiskTeachingJudgingTheoryBiologyPublic SchoolAtheisticNeutrality
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“If you have evidence that C1 is a cause of E, and no evidence as to whether C2 is also a cause of E, then C1 seems to be a better explanation of E than C1&C2 is, since C1 is more parsimonious. I call the version of Ockham's razor used here "the razor of silence." The better explanation of E is silent about C2; it does not deny that C2 was a cause. The problem changes if you consider two conjunctive hypotheses.”

IfsDoeTwoProblemSeemsUsedCausesSilenceEvidenceSilentDenyVersionsExplanationHypothesisRazors
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“Evolutionary biologists often appeal to parsimony when they seek to explain why organisms "match" with respect to a given trait. For example, why do almost all the organisms that are alive today on our planet use the same genetic code? If they share a common ancestor, the code could have evolved just once and then been inherited from the most recent common ancestor that present organisms share. On the other hand, if organisms in different species share no common ancestors, the code must have evolved repeatedly.”

IfsDifferentUseHandsTodayGivenCommonAliveShareExamplePlanetsSpeciesAppealsCodeAncestorTraitsOrganismsOur PlanetLive For TodayBiologistParsimony
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“One influential philosophical position about the use of probability in science holds that probabilities are objective only if they are based on micro-physics; all other probabilities should be interpreted subjectively, as merely revealing our ignorance about physical details. I have argued against this position, contending that the objectivity of micro-physical probabilities entails the objectivity of macro-probabilities.”

IfsShouldUsePositionIgnorancePhilosophicalDetailsPhysicsObjectivesProbabilityRevealingInfluentialObjectivityContendingMacro
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“Darwin repeatedly used the hypothesis of common ancestry as a platform on which to build his various ideas about testing hypotheses concerning natural selection. He also argued that adaptive similarities provide little or no evidence for common ancestry. Although this second claim needs to be fine-tuned, Darwin was right that ample evidence for common ancestry can exist even if none of the characteristics we observe were caused to evolve by natural selection.”

IfsNeedsLittlesIdeasUsedNaturalCommonFineEvidenceClaimsVariousEvolveCharacteristicsPlatformsHypothesisSelectionTestingSimilarityNatural SelectionAncestryAdaptive
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“Another way to test hypotheses about adaptation is to consider trait variation across a group of species instead of focusing on the trait of a single species. Rather than seeking to explain why polar bears have fur of a certain thickness, one tries to explain why bears in colder climates have thicker fur than bears in warmer climates. The former problem is hard to solve, since it is hard to say exactly what fur thickness polar bears should have if natural selection guided the evolution of that trait.”

IfsWayShouldTryingHardProblemCertainNaturalGroupsBearsEvolutionShould HaveTestsClimateSpeciesSeekingSolveFormerTraitsHypothesisSelectionAdaptationAnother WayVariationFurNatural SelectionPolar BearsThickness
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image

“The indispensability argument says (roughly) that if you have ample reason to accept an empirical scientific theory that makes indispensable use of mathematics, and that theory entails that numbers exist, then you have ample reason to accept that numbers exist. The argument affirms the antecedent of this conditional, and concludes that you have ample reason to believe that numbers exist. What is striking about this argument is that it seems to show that the empirical reasons that suffice for accepting a scientific theory also suffice for accepting a metaphysical claim.”

IfsBelieveReasonUseShowsSeemsNumbersAcceptingTheoryArgumentClaimsMathematicsIndispensableMetaphysicalScientific TheoryConditional
Author:Elliott Sober
Create image