Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

“The classical argument for why a supposedly decent and moral creature like Homo sapiens can mistreat and even extirpate other species rests upon an extreme position in a continuum. The Cartesian tradition, formulated explicitly in the seventeenth century, but developed in "folk" and other versions throughout human history no doubt, holds that other animals are little more than unfeeling machines, with only humans enjoying "consciousness," however defined.”

Quote by Stephen Jay Gould

Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould was a renowned paleontologist, evolutionary theorist, science writer, and academic. He is known for his work in ornithology, paleontology, evolutionary theory, and speciation. Gould's writings and papers have had a profound impact on the scientific community, and he was a long-time contributor to the journal 'Nature'. more

You May Also Like

“No one should feel at all offended or threatened by the obvious fact that we are not all born entirely blank, or entirely the same, in our mixture of the broad behavioral propensities defining what we call "temperament".”

Feels Should Facts Born Obvious Broads Blank Threatened Offended Temperament Mixtures Defining Propensity

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“[G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of chemical processes. Genes do not make "novelty seeking" or any other complex and overt behavior. Predisposition via a long chain of complex chemical reactions, mediated through a more complex series of life's circumstances, does not equal identification or even causation.”

Long Doe Process Circumstances Equal Behavior Series Complexes Rate Seeking Reactions Chains Chemicals Genes Novelty Identification Causation Chemical Reactions Enzymes

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Words change their meanings, just as organisms evolve. We would impose an enormous burden on our economy if we insisted on payment in cattle every time we identified a bonus as a pecuniary advantage (from the Latin pecus , or cattle, a verbal fossil from a former commercial reality).”

Ifs Reality Economy Advantage Burden Enormous Former Evolve Latin Organisms Fossils Payment Cattle Bonus

Book:The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

Source: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

“The enemy is not fundamentalism; it is intolerance. In this case, the intolerance is perverse since it masquerades under the "liberal" rhetoric of "equal time." But mistake it not.”

Mistake Enemy Cases Equal Intolerance Rhetoric Fundamentalism Creationism Masquerade

Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

Source: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History

“If I can't face my accusers, that's a joke. We did that in medieval times.”

Ifs I Can Faces Jokes Medieval Accusers Medieval Times

Author:Lance Armstrong

“We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button reading "positive attitude" protrudes from our hearts, and no finger can coerce positivity into immediate action by a single and painless pressing.”

Years Heart Might Action Values Order Reading Attitude Personality Fundamentals Fingers Positivity Positive Attitude Buttons Utility Painless Coerce Immediate Action

Book:Full House

Source: Full House

“Darwinian evolution may be the most truthful and powerful idea ever generated by Western Science, but if we continue to illustrate our conviction with an indefensible, unsupported, entirely speculative, and basically rather silly story, then we are clothing a thing of beauty in rags - and we should be ashamed, "for the apparel oft proclaims the man.”

Ifs Men Should May Ideas Stories Powerful He Man Evolution Western Conviction Silly Ashamed Clothings Truthful Rags Apparel

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History

“Advocates for a single line of progress encounter their greatest stumbling block when they try to find a smooth link between the apparently disparate designs of the invertebrates and vertebrates.”

Trying Lines Progress Design Block Encounters Links Smooth Stumbling Stumbling Blocks Single Line Vertebrates Invertebrates

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“If we make this readjustment to view Homo sapiens as an ultimate in oddball rarity, and life at bacterial grade as the common expression of a universal phenomenon, then we could finally ask the truly fundamental question raised by the prospect of Martian fossils. If life originates as a general property of the material universe under certain conditions (probably often realized), then how much can the basic structure and constitution of life vary from place to independent place?”

“I am willing to believe that my unobtainable sixty seconds within a sponge or a flatworm might not reveal any mental acuity that I would care to call consciousness. But I am also confident [...] that vultures and sloths, as close evolutionary relatives with the same basic set of organs, lie on our side of any meaningful (and necessarily fuzzy) border and that we are therefore not mistaken when we look them in the eye and see a glimmer of emotional and conceptual affinity.”

Believe Looks Might Eye Care Lying Sides Consciousness Emotional Willing Meaningful Borders Seconds Organs Sixty Mistaken Sloth Affinity Sponges Fuzzy Vulture

Author:Stephen Jay Gould