11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 The Brain's the Thing

I consider the differences between man and animals in propensities, feelings, and intellectual faculties, to be the result of the same cause as that which we assign for the variations in other functions, viz. difference of organization; and that the superiority of man in rational endowments is not greater than the more exquisite, complicated, and perfectly developed structure of his brain, and particularly of his ample cerebral hemispheres, to which the rest of the animal kingdom offers no pa...
Folksonomies: evolution brain
Folksonomies: evolution brain
  1  notes

That contains all our operations and distinguishes us from the other animals.

08 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 How Humans Resemble Rats

...[T]he natural history of the rat is tragically similar to that of man ... some of the more obvious qualities in which rats resemble men — ferocity, omnivorousness, and adaptability to all climates ... the irresponsible fecundity with which both species breed at all seasons of the year with a heedlessness of consequences, which subjects them to wholesale disaster on the inevitable, occasional failure of the food supply.... [G]radually, these two have spread across the earth, keeping pace ...
Folksonomies: prejudice analogy race
Folksonomies: prejudice analogy race
  1  notes

Down to our racial oppression of one another.

15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus

 Science Must Have Practical Application in Ordinary Life

Though the parallel is not complete, it is safe to say that science will never touch them unaided by its practical applications. Its wonders may be catalogued for purposes of education, they may be illustrated by arresting experiments, by numbers and magnitudes which startle or fatigue the imagination but they will form no familiar portion of the intellectual furniture of ordinary men unless they be connected, however remotely, with the conduct of ordinary life.
Folksonomies: science philosophy change
Folksonomies: science philosophy change
  1  notes

The wonders of science won't hold in people's minds unless they also touch their daily lives.