3 Stephen Jay Gould Quotes on Epistemology

Stephen Jay Gould quotes on epistemology

99. Phenomena unfold on their own appropriate scales of space and time and may be invisible in our myopic world of dimensions assessed by comparison with human height and times metered by human lifespans. So much of accumulating importance at earthly scales [:] is invisible by the measuring rod of a human life. So much that matters to particles in the microscopic world of molecules [:] either averages out to stability at our scale or simply stands below our limits of perception.

117. Each worldview was a cultural product, but evolution is true and separate creation is not. [:] Worldviews are social constructions, and they channel the search for facts. But facts are found and knowledge progresses, however fitfully. Fact and theory are intertwined, and all great scientists understand the interaction.

129. Nature is objective, and nature is knowable, but we can only view her through a glass darkly-and many clouds upon our vision are of our own making: social and cultural biases, psychological preferences, and mental limitations (in universal modes of thought, not just individualized stupidity).