“Life's Solution builds a forceful case for the predictability of evolutionary outcomes, not in terms of genetic details but rather their broad phenotypic manifestations. The case rests on a remarkable compilation of examples of convergent evolution, in which two or more lineages have independently evolved similar structures and functions.” TwoTermCasesExampleEvolutionSolutionsFunctionStructureDetailsManifestationOutcomesRemarkableBroadsLineagePredictabilityCompilationStructure And Function Author:Simon Conway Morris
“Spinoza , for example, thought that insight into the essence of reality, into the harmonious structure of the eternal universe, necessarily awakens love for this universe. For him, ethical conduct is entirely determined by such insight into nature, just as our devotion to a person may be determined by insight into his greatness or genius. Fears and petty passions, alien to the great love of the universe, which is logos itself, will vanish, according to Spinoza, once our understanding of reality is deep enough.” MayPersonsEnoughRealityUniversePassionUnderstandingExampleGreatnessGeniusEternalEssenceStructureInsightDeterminedDevotionAliensEthicalPettyGreat LoveHarmoniousLogosSpinoza Book:Eclipse of Reason Source: Eclipse of Reason
“Though some still see the Internet, for example, as a democratic structure for international individual expression, it is more realistic to recognize it as only the latest technological vehicle to be turned, sooner or later, to corporate advantage - for advertising, marketing and general corporate aggrandizement.” StillsIndividualExampleExpressionInternetAdvantageStructureDemocraticMarketingInternationalAdvertisingCorporateRealisticVehicleSooner Or LaterTechnologicalIndividual Expression Author:Herbert Schiller
“We discover too late that we have turned a blind eye to the extinction of a species that is essential to the balance of life in a particular context. Or we discover too late that the importation of a foreign life-form, animal or vegetable, has upset local ecosystems, damaging soil or neighbouring life-forms. We discover that we have come near the end of supplies-of fossil-fuels for example -on which we have built immense structures of routine expectation.” EndsEyeFormAnimalExampleParticularBalanceEssentialsLateExpectationsBuiltBlindStructureSpeciesEnvironmentalLocalsUpsetSoilFuelToo LateRoutineVegetablesImmenseFossilsExtinctionStewardshipSuppliesFossil FuelEcosystemsBlind EyesImportation Book:Faith in the Public Square Source: Faith in the Public Square
“Evil can also be beautiful. The Coliseum in Rome, for example, a wonderful structure with an awful past. Just think about the bloody gladiator fights there.” ThinkingPastBeautifulFightingEvilWonderfulExampleStructureAwfulSatanRomeBloodyColiseum Author:Rem Koolhaas
“Socialism to me is establishing social control of power in society, and where that differs from liberalism for example which aims at a similar situation in some respects, is we think you can only establish control over power by changing the structure and distribution of power, notably economic power.” ThinkingSocialSituationEconomicExampleAimStructureSocialismLiberalismDistributionEconomic PowerSocial ControlDistribution Of Power Author:Denis Healey
“If you read Calvin, for example, he says, How do we know that we are godlike, in the image of God? Well, look at how brilliant we are. Look how we can solve problems even dreaming, which I think is true, which I've done myself. So instead of having an externalized model of reality with an objective structure, it has a model of reality that is basically continuously renegotiated in human perception. I think that view of things is pretty pervasively influential in Protestant thought.” IfsThinkingKnowsHumansWellsLooksDoneProblemDreamRealityViewsExamplePerceptionModelsStructureSolveBrilliantObjectivesInfluentialProtestantsGod ImageGodlike Author:Marilynne Robinson
“There are... scientific works - star catalogues, for example - which are not art; but the theoretical structures of Gauss, Einstein, or Maxwell are original, individual, "very personal" responses and expressions of exactly the same kind as the creative works of Beethoven or Dostoievski.” KindArtIndividualStarsCreativeExampleExpressionOriginalsStructureResponseTheoreticalCreative WorkCataloguesMaxwell Book:The World of Mathematics Source: The World of Mathematics
“I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism.” ThinkingKnowsSelfRaceBrainInformationExampleColorDegreesRacismSkinsIncreaseStructureBonesRacistAssociatesSkin Color Author:Tao Lin
“I think the structures of exclusion are more systematically built up in American society, for example, so that young girls interested in science eventually lose their confidence over time. The structures of exclusion work against them. We have other structures of exclusion in India, but not around modern scientific knowledge.” ThinkingYoungGirlLosesModernExampleBuiltIndiaStructureExclusionAmerican SocietyScientific Knowledge Author:Vandana Shiva