“Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and very fast, whereas biological evolution is Darwinian and usually very slow.”

— Edward O. Wilson, book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

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 "Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and very fast, whereas biological evolution is Darwinian and usually very slow." by Edward O. Wilson?

Edward O. Wilson83

American biologist 1929

Related quotes

“Because it is… far slower than Lamarckian evolution, biological evolution is always quickly outrun by cultural change.”

Edward O. Wilson book On Human Nature

On Human Nature (1978), Ch.4 Emergence

“One of the factors that caused Spencer's ideas to lose popularity was social Darwinism… Social evolution is different from biological evolution: it's faster, it's Lamarckian, and it makes even heavier use of altruism and cooperation than biological evolution does. None of this was well understood at the time.”

J. Doyne Farmer (1952) American physicist and entrepreneur (b.1952)

The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution (1995)

“Evolution has never found a way to be any speed but very slow.”

Jaron Lanier (1960) American computer scientist, musician, and author

"One Half of a Manifesto," The New Humanists: Science at the Edge (2003)

“In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution.”

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Hungarian composer and pianist

As quoted in The Enjoyment of Music : An Introduction to Perceptive Listening‎ (1955) by Joseph Machlis; also The Vintage Guide to Classical Music (1992) by Jan Swafford

“We want a fireworks theory of evolution. The last two thousand million years are slow evolution: they are the smoke and ashes of bright but very rapid fireworks.”

Georges Lemaître (1894–1966) Belgian scientist and priest

Article in Nature, 1931, vol 128, page 704

“Simulated evolution on a computer works but is no where near the gradual incremental process that is associated with Darwinian evolution. It's closer to dog breeding in terms of its computational complexity.”

Robert J. Marks II (1950) American electrical engineering researcher and intelligent design advocate

In the universe, [besides] space, matter and energy, there is information. [Information hasn't yet] been [well] defined nor studied. Many times proponents of evolutionary computing … refuse to recognize the contribution of [the programmer's infusion of information] into the process. Association with ID (intelligent design) in any way is detrimental to one's career. Everybody who works in ID should first have tenure before they come out of the closet. My comments are as an expert in computational intelligence. I'm not a biologist. For me to talk about the details of biology is as stupid as a British biologist claiming expertise in religion. (A reference to Richard Dawkins.) Engineers actually design things. This is why [many] engineers are interested in the area of intelligent design "Well-Informed: Dr. Robert Marks and the Evolutionary Informatics Lab,", From an interview with Casey Luskin of the pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute, July 20, 2007, 2010-05-06 http://www.idthefuture.com/2007/07/wellinformed_dr_robert_marks_a.html,

“Molecular evolution is not based on scientific authority.. . . There are assertions that such evolution occurred, but absolutely none are supported by pertinent experiments or calculations. Since no one knows molecular evolution by direct experience, and since there is no authority on which to base claims of knowledge, it can truly be said that. . . the assertion of Darwinian molecular evolution is merely bluster.”

Michael J. Behe (1952) American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate

Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution (1996)

“The end of a stage of evolution is usually marked by a powerful recrudescence of all that has to go out of the evolution.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

September 18, 1909
India's Rebirth

“I am a vegetarian because I believe that present-day ethics is founded on that puerile, pre-Darwinian delusion that all other kinds of creatures and all worlds were created explicitly for the hominine species. Vegetarianism is the ethical corollary of evolution. It is simply the expansion of ethics to suit the biological revelations of Charles Darwin. Evolution has taught us the kinship of all creatures.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: Why I Am a Vegetarian: An Address Delivered before the Chicago Vegetarian Society (1895), pp. 19–20

“There is no easy solution to the conflict between fundamentalist Christian dogma and the facts of biological evolution.”

Freeman Dyson book Infinite in All Directions

Source: Infinite in All Directions (1988), Ch. 1 : In Praise of Diversity
Context: There is no easy solution to the conflict between fundamentalist Christian dogma and the facts of biological evolution. I am not saying that the conflict could have been altogether avoided. I am saying only that the conflict was made more bitter and more damaging, both to religion and to science, by the dogmatic and self-righteousness of scientists. What was needed was a little more human charity, a little more willingness to listen rather than to lay down the law, a little more humility. Scientists stand in need of these Christian virtues just as much as preachers do.

“Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and very fast, whereas biological evolution is Darwinian and usually very slow.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Edward O. Wilson83

Related quotes

Related topics