Simon Conway Morris Quotes

United Kingdom, Paleoanthropologist
November 6, 1951

Simon Conway Morris FRS is an English palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and astrobiologist known for his study of the fossils of the Burgess Shale and the Cambrian explosion. The results of these discoveries were celebrated in Stephen Jay Gould's 1989 book Wonderful Life. Conway Morris's own book on the subject, The Crucible of Creation (1998), however, is critical of Gould's presentation and interpretation.

Evolution is true, it happens, it is the way the world is, and we too are one of its products. This does not mean that evolution does not have metaphysical implications; I remain convinced that this is the case.

Simon Conway Morris
It is difficult to imagine evolution in alien planets operating in any manner other than Darwinian.

Simon Conway Morris
- Imagine
- Evolution
- Alien

One can say with reasonable confidence that the likelihood of something analogous to a human evolving is really pretty high.

Simon Conway Morris
Most of the tree of life is effectively arranged.

Simon Conway Morris
- Life
- Tree
- Arranged
It is my opinion that human history can make no sense unless evil doings are recognized for what they are, and that they are bearable only if somehow they may be redeemed.

Simon Conway Morris
- History
- Evil
- Sense
The manner in which life constructs itself must be dealing with some other principle which we've failed to identify.

Simon Conway Morris
- Life
- Principle
- Identify
By obtaining a sense of its place in the unfolding drama of life, set in an ecological theatre, so we can understand why it has become one of the leading players.

Simon Conway Morris
- Life
- Drama
- Place
If there were a clear prospect that such evils were part of a barbarian past, then at least we might find a small crumb of comfort. No such prospect exists: no scientific analysis can even remotely answer or account for past and present horrors of human behaviour.

Simon Conway Morris
- Human
- Behaviour
- Prospect

Ethics are pre-determined and a matter of discovery, not a evolved concept.

Simon Conway Morris
- Ethics
- Discovery
- Concept
Scientists have wonderfully explained the organization of the universe, but that's really all it claims to do, and I think it does that very successfully.

Simon Conway Morris