Stephen Jay Gould Quotes


Nature is objective, and nature is knowable, but we can only view her through a glass darkly and many clouds upon our vision are of our own making: social and cultural biases, psychological preferences, and mental limitations (in universal modes of thought, not just individualized stupidity).


Citations

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man. W. W. Norton & Company, 1981, p. 22.

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Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould
  • Born: September 10, 1941
  • Died: May 20, 2002
  • Nationality: American
  • Profession: Scientist

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at Harvard University and working at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In 1996, Gould was hired as the Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University, where he divided his time teaching there and at Harvard.