Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
Charles DarwinRead
He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Interpretation
Understanding animal behavior can provide deep insights into human nature and philosophical concepts.
Darwin's quote suggests that a deep comprehension of the natural world, particularly the behavior of animals like baboons, holds greater significance for understanding the complexities of human thought and existence than some philosophical works. It emphasizes the importance of observing nature and our closest relatives to gain insight into fundamental questions about life and consciousness.
In practice
In a lecture about animal behavior, this quote could illustrate the importance of understanding our evolutionary history.
Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws.
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
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.
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.
I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.
we are always slow in admitting any great change of which we do not see the intermediate steps
It is not enough for me to ask question; I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face: What am I here for?
No doubt many people have the feeling that to talk about death at all is, in effect, to conjure it up mentally, to bring it closer in such a way that one has to face up to the inevitability of one's own eventual demise. So, to spare ourselves this psychological trauma, we decide just to try to avoid the topic as much as possible.
There is an ever-widening gap between what science allows and what we should actually do. There are many doors science can open that should be kept closed, on prudential or ethical grounds.
I took the world into me, rearranged it, and sent it back out as a question: "Do you like me?
Disturbances in society are never more fearful than when those who are stirring up the trouble can use the pretext of religion to mask their true designs.
If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.
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