I profess to learn and to teach anatomy not from books but from dissections, not from the tenets of Philosophers but from the fabric of Nature.
William HarveyRead
Evolution works by selection, not by instruction. There is no final cause, no teleology, no purpose guiding the overall process
Interpretation
What this quote means
Evolution occurs through natural selection rather than a predetermined plan or purpose.
Gerald Edelman's quote emphasizes the fundamental principle of evolution, which is driven by the process of selection among variations rather than a clear, designed instruction or end goal. It suggests that the evolution of life is a complex, unguided process where random mutations and environmental pressures shape species over time, devoid of any inherent purpose or final destination.
Themes
EvolutionSelectionNatural SelectionSciencePurposeProcess
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the principles of evolution in a biology class.
Similar quotes
The phenomena of nature, especially those that fall under the inspection of the astronomer, are to be viewed, not only with the usual attention to facts as they occur, but with the eye of reason and experience.
William HerschelRead
In a lot of scientists, the ratio of wonder to skepticism declines in time. That may be connected with the fact that in some fields-mathematics, physics, some others-the great discoveries are almost entirely made by youngsters.
Carl SaganRead
Drug company payments to doctors are a small part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets.
Robert ReichRead
I venture to define science as a series of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiment and observation and fruitful of further experiments and observations. The test of a scientific theory is, I suggest, its fruitfulness.
James Bryant ConantRead
It will free man from the remaining chains, the chains of gravity which still tie him to this planet.
Wernher Von BraunRead