|
Lancelot Law Whyte
(4 Nov 1896 - 14 Sep 1972)
Scottish philosopher and science writer who worked on the Unified Field Theory with Albert Einstein. In his early career, he had experience in industry, consultant on financing invention and later turned to writing and lecturing.
|
Science Quotes by Lancelot Law Whyte (5 quotes)
“Expect surprises!” should be the watchword of all scientists who try to look beyond the fashions of the day.
— Lancelot Law Whyte
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 13.
Both science and art have to do with ordered complexity.
— Lancelot Law Whyte
In The Griffin (1957), 6, No 10.
Every rule has its limits, and every concept its ambiguities. Most of all is this true in the science of life, where nothing quite corresponds to our ideas; similar ends are reached by varied means, and no causes are simple.
— Lancelot Law Whyte
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 13.
The main steps of my argument may be summarized thus:
1. Organisms are highly coordinated structures.
2. Only certain avenues of change are compatible with their conditions of coordination.
3. The formative and selective action of these internal conditions is theoretically and empirically different from that of Darwinian selection.
4. Mutations in the mode of coordination of the genetic system lie outside the scope of the classical arguments purporting to show that natural selection is the only directive agency.
5. The coordinative conditions constitute a second directive agency.
1. Organisms are highly coordinated structures.
2. Only certain avenues of change are compatible with their conditions of coordination.
3. The formative and selective action of these internal conditions is theoretically and empirically different from that of Darwinian selection.
4. Mutations in the mode of coordination of the genetic system lie outside the scope of the classical arguments purporting to show that natural selection is the only directive agency.
5. The coordinative conditions constitute a second directive agency.
— Lancelot Law Whyte
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 73.
The synthetic theory of evolution has always seemed to me to be one of the most impressive achievements of the human intellect, a collective scientific product of indubitable validity.
— Lancelot Law Whyte
In Internal Factors in Evolution (1965), 23.
See also:
- 4 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Whyte's birth.
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) -- 
