Authors:
  1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. S
  4. Stephen Jay Gould
  5. Progress

Stephen Jay Gould Quotes about Progress

All Stephen Jay Gould Quotes Adaptation Age Atheism Baseball Biology Children Commitment Creation Culture Design Diversity Doubt Earth Ecology Environment Evolution Genius Giving Humanity Imagination Integrity Kindness Life Lying Nature Observation Past Perspective Philosophy Progress quotes Reality Religion Science Simplicity Soul Struggle Students Stupidity Tragedy Understanding Values Vision Writing
Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which if replanted from seed, would almost

Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again.

Stephen Jay Gould
Progress, Littles, Tiny
"Dinosaur in a Haystack". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, "Can We Complete Darwin's Revolution?" (p. 327), 1995.

The history of life is a tale of decimation and later stabilization of few surviving anatomies, not a story of steady expansion and progress.

Stephen Jay Gould
Life, Progress, Expansion
Stephen Jay Gould (1991). “Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History”, W W Norton & Company Incorporated

Life is a copiously branching bush, continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction, not a ladder of predictable progress.

Stephen Jay Gould
Life, Science, Progress
Stephen Jay Gould (1990). “Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History”, p.35, W. W. Norton & Company

The equation of evolution with progress represents our strongest cultural impediment to a proper understanding of this greatest biological revolution in the history of human thought.

Stephen Jay Gould
Science, Understanding, Progress
Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms”, p.173, Harvard University Press

I like to summarize what I regard as the pedestal-smashing messages of Darwin's revolution in the following statement, which might be chanted several times a day, like a Hare Krishna mantra, to encourage penetration into the soul: Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary progress, but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought, a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which, if replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again, or perhaps any twig with any property that we would care to call consciousness.

Stephen Jay Gould
Soul, Progress, Pedestal
"Dinosaur in a Haystack". Book by Stephen Jay Gould, "Can We Complete Darwin's Revolution?", p. 327, 1995.

Each worldview was a cultural product, but evolution is true and separate creation is not. [...] Worldviews are social constructions, and they channel the search for facts. But facts are found and knowledge progresses, however fitfully. Fact and theory are intertwined, and all great scientists understand the interaction.

Stephen Jay Gould
Progress, Facts, Evolution
Stephen Jay Gould (1993). “Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history”, Vintage

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.

Stephen Jay Gould
Block, Design, Progress

World views are social constructions and they channel the search for facts. But facts are found and knowledge progresses, however fitfully.

Stephen Jay Gould
Views, Perception, Progress
Stephen Jay Gould (1993). “Eight little piggies: reflections in natural history”, Vintage

Natural selection is just three factors - over-production, variation, and inheritance combined to produce adaptation to changing local environments. It's not a principle or progress; it's just a principle of local adaptation. You don't make better creatures in any cosmic sense; you make creatures that are better suited to the changing climates of their local habitats.

Stephen Jay Gould
Progress, Climate, Principles
Source: www.pbs.org

You May Also Like: