“Contrary to earlier prejudices, there is nothing inherently progressive about evolution.”

— Richard Dawkins, book The Blind Watchmaker

Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 7 “Constructive Evolution” (p. 178)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Contrary to earlier prejudices, there is nothing inherently progressive about evolution." by Richard Dawkins?

Richard Dawkins322

English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American writer

Source: Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume II, p. 105.

“Without contraries there is no progression.”

William Blake book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Source: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

“The assumption is that the inevitability of a solution's realization is inherent in the interaction of human intellect and the constantly transformative evolution of physical universe.”

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor and futurist

World Design Science Decade 1965-1975 Phase I (1965), Document 3 : Comprehensive Thinking, "Venus Proximity Day", p. 33 http://challenge.bfi.org/sites/challenge.bfi.org/files/pdf_files/wdsd_phase1_doc3.pdf <br class="br">1960s <br class="br">Context: One of my working assumptions which has been proven successful so often as seemingly to qualify it as a reliable tenet is that A problem adequately stated is a problem solved theoretically and immediately, and therefore subsequently to be solved, realistically. Others have probably stated the principle in many ways. The assumption is that the inevitability of a solution's realization is inherent in the interaction of human intellect and the constantly transformative evolution of physical universe. At first the, only subconsciously apprehended, approaching confluences of complex events make themselves known intuitively within the intellectual weather. Then comes a gradually awakening consciousness of the presence of new families of differentiating-out challenging concepts of every day prominence. It is with these randomly patterning families of separate concepts that evolution is about to deal integratively. As a now specific unitary problem it may be disposed of effectively when and if that unified problem becomes "adequately stated" and thereby comprehensibly solvable.

“The pope notwithstanding, the human species is by no means the pinnacle of evolution. Evolution has no pinnacle and there is no such thing as evolutionary progress.”

Matt Ridley book Genome

Source: Genome (1999), Chapter 2 “Species” (p. 24)

“Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior.”

Mary McCarthy (1912–1989) American writer

"The Contagion of Ideas", p. 44. A speech delivered to a group of teachers (Summer 1952); not previously published
On the Contrary: Articles of Belief 1946–1961 (1961)

“Another force driving progressive evolution is the so-called "arms-race."”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

Prey animals evolve faster running speeds because predators do. Consequently predators have to evolve even faster running speeds, and so on, in an escalating spiral. Such arms races probably account for the spectacularly advanced engineering of eyes, ears, brains, bat "radar" and all the other high-tech weaponry that animals display.
The Evolutionary Future of Man (1993)

“Life without prejudice, were it ever to be tried, would soon reveal itself to be a life without principle. For prejudices, as we have seen earlier, are often built-in principles. They are the extract which the mind has made of experience.”

Richard M. Weaver (1910–1963) American scholar

“Life without prejudice,” p. 12.
Life Without Prejudice (1965)

“There is nothing inherently expensive about rockets. It's just that those who have built and operated them in the past have done so with horrendously poor efficiency.”

Elon Musk (1971) South African-born American entrepreneur

Conversation: Elon Musk on Wired Science (2007)
Variant: There is nothing inherently expensive about rockets. It's just that those who have built and operated them in the past have done so with horrendously poor efficiency.

““The Core knows what Teilhard de Chardin and other sentimentalists refused to acknowledge: evolution is not progress, that there is no ‘goal’ or direction to evolution. Evolution is change. Evolution ‘succeeds’ if that change best adapts some leaf or branch of its tree of life to conditions of the universe.”

Dan Simmons book The Rise of Endymion

Source: The Rise of Endymion (1997), Chapter 20 (p. 406)

“How can you look at this and not see it as the symbol for the self-referencing nature of progressive evolution.”

Sanjaya Malakar (1989) American reality television personality

Malakar as Bill Vendall, 25 year old graduate student of fine arts, on his ever-changing 'character creation', Sanjaya Malakar. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4763

“Contrary to earlier prejudices, there is nothing inherently progressive about evolution.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Richard Dawkins322

Related quotes

Related topics