Category Archives: Quotes
More Feynman on philosophers
Take note: he’s writing this in the dark ages of philosophy of science (1965): Another most interesting change in the ideas and philosophy of science brought about by quantum mechanics is this: it is not possible to predict exactly what … Continue reading
Filed under Philosophy, Quotes, Science
On sources
Jeb McLeish sent me a link to this rather fascinating monograph, which translates Isidore of Seville’s medical section of the Etymologiae (c632), with an extensive foreword by the translator, William D. Sharpe. I recommend the introduction as a summary of the … Continue reading
Evolution quotes: Diderot
It seems that nature has taken pleasure in varying the same mechanism in a thousand different ways. She never abandons any class of her creations before she has multiplied the individuals of it in as many different forms as possible. … Continue reading
Quote: Eddington’s two tables
Arthur Stanley Eddington was an Englishman, a physicist, a pacifist and a clever writer: I have settled down to the task of writing these lectures and have drawn up my chairs to my two tables. Two tables! Yes; there are … Continue reading
Filed under General Science, History, Philosophy, Quotes
Evolution quote: Sirks and Zirkle
At this point it might be well to insert a fact that has generally been overlooked by the historians of biology. The pre-evolutionary concept of species is generally given as a universally accepted view that species were constant and true … Continue reading
Filed under Biology, Evolution, History, Philosophy, Quotes, Species and systematics, Species concept
Taxonomy as product
Taxonomists may be described as producers, their productions being the classifications and names of plants. The non-taxonomists may be likened to consumers, the aforesaid classifications and names being the commodities which they consume. Now the characteristics of a commodity are … Continue reading
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Filed under Quotes, Systematics
A quote on science
“All science is either, A. Science of Discovery; B. Science of Review; or C. Practical Science. By “science of review” is meant the business of those who occupy themselves with arranging the results of discovery… The classification of the sciences belongs … Continue reading
Filed under Natural Classification, Philosophy, Quotes, Systematics
Churchill on Islam
How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. … Continue reading
