George Gaylord Simpson (June 16, 1902 – October 6, 1984) was an American paleontologist.
Simpson was perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century,...
Other species doubtless have much more limited ideas about the world, but what ideas they do have are much less likely to be wrong and are never foolish. George Gaylord Simpson
Other species doubtless have much more limited ideas about the world, but what ideas they do have are much less likely to be wrong and are never foolish.
It is obvious that the great majority of humans throughout history have had grossly, even ridiculously, unrealistic concepts of the world. Man is, among many other things, the mistaken animal, the foolish animal. George Gaylord Simpson
It is obvious that the great majority of humans throughout history have had grossly, even ridiculously, unrealistic concepts of the world. Man is, among many other things, the mistaken animal, the foolish animal.
In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed. George Gaylord Simpson
In most cases the break is so sharp and the gap so large that the origin of the order is speculative and much disputed.
The earliest and most primitive known members of every order already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known. George Gaylord Simpson
The earliest and most primitive known members of every order already have the basic ordinal characters, and in no case is an approximately continuous sequence from one order to another known.
The science of systematics has long been affected by profound philosophical preconceptions, which have been all the more influential for being usually covert, even subconscious. George Gaylord Simpson
The science of systematics has long been affected by profound philosophical preconceptions, which have been all the more influential for being usually covert, even subconscious.
The search for historical laws is, I maintain, mistaken in principle. George Gaylord Simpson
The search for historical laws is, I maintain, mistaken in principle.
It is inherent in any definition of science that statements that cannot be checked by observation are not really saying anything or at least they are not science. George Gaylord Simpson
It is inherent in any definition of science that statements that cannot be checked by observation are not really saying anything or at least they are not science.
The opposition to teaching evolution is, of course, almost always given a religious reason. That may usually be its real basis, but I think it is often a mask, perhaps unconscious, for underlying anti-intellectualism or antiscientism. George Gaylord Simpson
The opposition to teaching evolution is, of course, almost always given a religious reason. That may usually be its real basis, but I think it is often a mask, perhaps unconscious, for underlying anti-intellectualism or antiscientism.
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life. George Gaylord Simpson
Man is the result of a purposeless and materialistic process that did not have him in mind. He was not planned. He is a state of matter, a form of life, a sort of animal, and a species of the Order Primates, akin nearly or remotely to all of life.
The means to gaining right ends involve both organic evolution and human evolution, but human choice as to what are the right ends must be based on human evolution. George Gaylord Simpson
The means to gaining right ends involve both organic evolution and human evolution, but human choice as to what are the right ends must be based on human evolution.
There is no automatism that will carry him upward without choice or effort and there is no trend solely in the right direction. Evolution has no purpose; man must supply this for himself. George Gaylord Simpson
There is no automatism that will carry him upward without choice or effort and there is no trend solely in the right direction. Evolution has no purpose; man must supply this for himself.
Man has risen, not fallen. He can choose to develop his capacities as the highest animal and to try to rise still farther, or he can choose otherwise. The choice is his responsibility, and his alone. George Gaylord Simpson
Man has risen, not fallen. He can choose to develop his capacities as the highest animal and to try to rise still farther, or he can choose otherwise. The choice is his responsibility, and his alone.