The Darwinian theory is in principle capable of explaining life. No other theory that has ever been suggested is in read more

The Darwinian theory is in principle capable of explaining life. No other theory that has ever been suggested is in principle capable of explaining life.

Never assume the obvious is true.

Never assume the obvious is true.

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not read more

All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

Any good practical philosophy must start out with the recognition of our having a body.

The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behavior...lacks the peculiarity that characterizes events read more

The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behavior...lacks the peculiarity that characterizes events in the field of the natural sciences, viz., regularity.

It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In read more

It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress. In the process by which opinion is formed, it is very probable that, by the time any view becomes a majority view, it is no longer the best view: somebody will already have advanced beyond the point which the majority have reached. It is because we do not yet which of the many competing new opinions will prove itself the best that we wait until it has gained sufficient support.

Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that read more

Wherever we find orderly, stable systems in Nature, we find that they are hierarchically structured, for the simple reason that without such structuring of complex systems into sub-assemblies, there could be no order and stability- except the order of a dead universe filled with a uniformly distributed gas.

Progress cannot be organized.

Progress cannot be organized.

Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into read more

Where intellectuals have played a role in history, it has not been so much by whispering words of advice into the ears of political overlords as by contributing to the vast and powerful currents of conceptions and misconceptions that sweep human action along.