Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Common pursuit

Jim Al-Khalili's articles in the Telegraph yesterday and Guardian today, pre-figuring his lecture at the Royal Society tonight, do a service to all of us in helping to increase awareness of a heritage of openness and inquiry under the Abassids. Where such intelligence and willingness to pay attention to evidence are present, hope is reinforced.

[Incidentally, it sounds as if al-Jahith (781-869) was as much/more proto-Lamarckian as/than proto-Darwinian: "Environmental factors influence organisms to develop new characteristics to ensure survival". But I should learn more.]

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