Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Darwin expresses skepticism about the evolution of the eye through natural selection due to its complexity.
In this quote, Charles Darwin conveys his belief that the intricate design of the eye, with its various sophisticated features for focus, light adjustment, and correction of visual distortions, cannot reasonably be attributed to the process of natural selection. He finds the notion absurd, reflecting on the remarkable complexities of biological structures that challenge simplistic evolutionary explanations.
Themes
EvolutionEyeNatural SelectionComplexityDesign
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the intricacies of biological systems in a biology class.
More from Charles Darwin
All quotes →The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
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I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.
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We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity of an organic being; but on the hypothesis here advanced this complexity is much increased. Each living creature must be looked at as a microcosm--a little universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms, inconceivably minute and as numerous as the stars in heaven.
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I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
Charles DarwinRead
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
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