The whole life lies in the verb seeing.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
It is a curious thing: man, the centre and creator of all science, is the only object which our science has not yet succeeded in including in a homogeneous representation of the universe. We know the history of his bones, but no ordered place has yet been found in nature for his reflective intelligence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on humanity's unique position in the universe and our understanding of ourselves through science.
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin highlights the paradox of human existence within the realm of science. While we have made significant advancements in understanding the physical world and the history of our biological evolution, the essence of human consciousness and reflective intelligence remains elusive and unquantified in the grand narrative of the universe, pointing to a gap in scientific understanding regarding what it means to be truly human.
Themes
ScienceHumanityIntelligencePhilosophyUniverse
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the philosophy of science, this quote can illustrate the limitations of scientific inquiry in understanding human nature.
More from Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
All quotes →Religion and science are the two conjugated faces or phases of one and the same complete act of knowledge - the only one which can embrace the past and future of evolution and so contemplate, measure and fulfil them.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
The mineral world is a much more supple and mobile world than could be imagined by the science of the ancients. Vaguely analogous to the metamorphoses of living creatures, there occurs in the most solid rocks, as we now know, perpetual transformation of a mineral species.
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We may, perhaps, imagine that the creation was finished long ago. But that would be quite wrong. It continues still more magnificently, and at the highest levels of the world.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are a good many points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of Truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me - I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.
Pierre Teilhard De ChardinRead
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