As a word, ecology has been so debased by recent political usage that many people employ it to identify anything good that happens far from cities and without human interference.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Gould argues that the term 'ecology' has been politicized to mean any pristine, human-free environment, losing its scientific precision.
- In plain terms
- People use 'ecology' to describe nature untouched by humans, but this stretches the word beyond its true meaning.
- What can you take from it?
- Avoid using scientific terms loosely when they lose their specific definition.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How does political usage change scientific terms?
- What is the core definition of ecology?
Another view
Some argue language evolves naturally and strict definitions limit public engagement.
More from Stephen Jay Gould
Creative work, in geology and anywhere else, is interaction and synthesis: half-baked ideas from a barroom, rocks in the field, chains of thought from lonely w…
Permalink to quote #66 [A]s we discern a fine line between crank and genius, so also (and unfortunately) we must acknowledge an equally graded trajectory from crank to demagogue. Whe…
Permalink to quote #68 Bowing to the reality of harried lives, Rudwick recognizes that not everyone will read every word of the meaty second section; he even explicitly gives us perm…
Permalink to quote #65
Related quotes
From the cranberry cancer scare of the 1950s to the Alar-in-apples hysteria of the 1980s, from the 'new ice age' of the 1960s to the 'global warming' of the 19…
Harry BrowneHarry Browne quote #9 The conservation movement is a breeding ground of Communists and other subversives. We intend to clean them out, even if it means rounding up every bird watche…
John MitchellJohn Mitchell quote #1 I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improp…
Thomas PaineThomas Paine quote #1