We do not draw conclusions with our eyes, but with our reasoning powers, and if the whole of the rest of living nature proclaims with one accord from all sides the evolution of the world of organisms, we cannot assume that the process stopped short of Man. But it follows also that the factors which brought about the development of Man from his Simian ancestry must be the same as those which have brought about the whole of evolution.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that human evolution is part of the broader process of evolution observed in nature and relies on our reasoning to understand it.
August Weismann's quote reflects the idea that human beings are not separate from the evolutionary processes that shape all living organisms. He argues that just as nature evolves and adapts, so too did humans emerge from a long line of ancestors, influenced by the same evolutionary factors as all other life forms. Weismann highlights the importance of reasoning in our understanding of these concepts, suggesting that conclusions about our origins require thoughtful analysis rather than mere observation.
In practice
This quote can be used in a lecture about evolutionary biology to highlight the connection between humans and other species.
What a sublime idea of the infinite might of the great Architect, the Cause of all causes, the Father of all fathers, the Ens Entium! For if we would compare the Infinite, it would surely require a greater Infinite to cause the causes of effects than to produce the effects themselves.
Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle.
Men became scientific because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed in a Law Giver.
We farm workers are closest to food production. We were the first to recognize the serious health hazards of agriculture pesticides to both consumers and ourselves.
Scientists are people of very dissimilar temperaments doing different things in very different ways. Among scientists are collectors, classifiers and compulsive tidiers-up; many are detectives by temperament and many are explorers; some are artists and others artisans. There are poet-scientists and philosopher-scientists and even a few mystics.
Evolution ... is opportunistic, hence unpredictable.
One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.