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Ian Tattersall
(10 May 1945 - )
American paleoanthropologist and writer who is now curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History. His numerous popular books about human evolution include The Myths of Human Evolution and Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness.
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Science Quotes by Ian Tattersall (4 quotes)
In science it is no crime to be wrong, unless you are (inappropriately) laying claim to truth. What matters is that science as a whole is a self-correcting mechanism in which both new and old notions are constantly under scrutiny. In other words, the edifice of scientific knowledge consists simply of a body of observations and ideas that have (so far) proven resistant to attack, and that are thus accepted as working hypotheses about nature.
— Ian Tattersall
In The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human (2003), 9.
Scientific findings do not threaten anyone (except to the extent that Homo sapiens may prove incapable of controlling what science makes possible). But what is critical to understand is that our species (or, for that matter, God) is not in the least diminished by the idea that we emerged thanks to the processes of evolution.
— Ian Tattersall
In The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human (2003), 55.
Somehow we believe it is normal and natural for us to be alone in the world. Yet in fact, if you look at the fossil record, you find that this is totally unusual—this may be the first time that we have ever had just one species of humans in the world. We have a history of diversity and competition among human species which began some five million years ago and came to an end with the emergence of modern humans. Two million years ago, for example, there were at least four human species on the same landscape.
— Ian Tattersall
In interview with Amy Otchet, 'The Humans We Left Behind', UNESCO Courier (Dec 2000), 53, No. 12, 47.
The notion of evolution predicts the nested pattern of relationships we find in the living world; supernatural creation, on the other hand, predicts nothing. It is concepts of this latter kind that are truly untestable.
— Ian Tattersall
In The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human (2003), 15.
See also:
- Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins, by Ian Tattersall. - book suggestion.
- Booklist for Ian Tattersall.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
