“The idea of steering a course between undesirable extremes emerges as a central prescription for sensible life.”- An averaging between unpleasant alternatives, the golden mean of Aristotle.
Main Concept:
To build a theory comes about buy using both inductivism and eurekaism. Darwin did not come up with his theory of natural selection from his time on the Beagle. Darwin allowed his thoughts to go in many different directions after reading and researching for over a year and a half.
Inductivism: to study the facts with an unbiased option. Great scientists are most of all great observers and patient gatherers of information.
Eurekaism: allowing your powers of intuition to hit their maximum. It happens only to a few “persons of genius”. It can come out of nowhere, unexpected, random, and not explainable.
“The theory of natural selection arouse neither as a workmanlike induction from nature’s facts, nor as a mysterious bolt form Darwin’s subconscious, triggered by an accidental reading of Malthus.”
Howard E. Gruber’: Darwin on Man- traces all the false leads and turning points in the phase of Darwin’s life between when the Beagle gets home and Darwin coming to the conclusion of the natural selection theory.
- Gould could have talked more about this book, too support his “middle path” theory, thus the idea for the title of this article. Even though Darwin started his journey with unbiased mind, he did still have in the back of his mind the longing for answers. This leads to reading and re-reading, observing, and re-observing the same thing.
My Thoughts:
Gould could have simplified his idea of inductivism and eurekaism. It was hard for me to dissect really what he was getting at until he quoted Pasteur-
”fortune favors the prepared mind”.
These five simple words simplify inductivism and eurekaism to come to the culmination of a theory; you must have a plethora of information to draw from. You must observe everything you can, some may be drastic some may be very faint. After all you have gathered there will be some point in your life that all the pieces to a grander puzzle, that you never knew existed because you were not yet equipped with the necessary tools from the society that you live in to the places that you visit to the things that you have read or seen or listened to, will finally fit together.
“The sources of idea is one thing; its truth or fruitfulness is another.”
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Right on with the Pasteur quote--that really clarified a lot for me, as well.
ReplyDeleteI wonder about your thoughts Gruber. You're right: I would have liked more info on that piece, but would everyone? I wonder if we can identify Gould's audience by thinking through how and what he decided to explain.