quotes

Ronald M. Green, ethicist, on building the "Bride of Neanderthal":

"If we learn this is a species that was wrongly pushed off the stage of history, there is something of a moral argument for bringing it back," he said. "But the status quo is not without merit."

Darwin, in a letter to J. D. Hooker (Dec. 12, 1856):

It is really laughable to see what different ideas are prominent in various naturalists' minds, when they speak of 'species': in some, resemblance is everything and descent of little weight -- in some resemblance seems to go for nothing, and Creation the reigning idea -- in some descent is the key, -- in some, sterility an unfailing test, with others it is not worth a farthing. It all comes, I believe, from trying to define the undefinable.

K. S. Lashley (Quarterly Review of Biology 24:28, 1949):

When Phungst (1911) demonstrated that the horses of Elberfeld, who were showing marvelous linguistic and mathematical ability, were merely reacting to movements of the trainer's head, Mr. Krall, (1912), their owner, met the criticism in the most direct manner. He asked the horses whether they could see such small movements and in answer they spelled out an emphatic "NO."

Karl Popper, in Unended Quest:

Never let yourself be goaded into taking seriously problems about words and their meanings. What must be taken seriously are questions of fact, and assertions about facts: theories and hypotheses; the problems they solve and the problems they raise.