Credentials

• Appendix?? by Mike Rohrbach, 1/7/98
  • The Aquatic Ape? by James Brody, 1/11/98
    • Re The Aquatic Ape by Michael King, 2/4/98
      
      

I wasn't aware of Elaine Morgan's unfrocked standing. Although I now understand why she writes so well. One of my favorite quotes is still by Loren Eiseley. "With occasional struggling exceptions such as Wallace, it was the amateur who laid the foundations of the science of today. The whole philosophy of modern biology was established by such a 'dabbler' as Charles Darwin, who never at any time held a professional position in the field. Charles Lyell and his great precursor, the Scotsman James Hutton, similarly laid the foundations of modern geology without claiming much in the way of formal institutional connections. Important though institutional and government support has come to be, it has led to a certain latent snobbery in professional circles."

He said it, I've thought it. My handicap is my rushed nature that finds it difficult to go through all the minuet rituals of formal writing. Thus, I miss steps and overstate things. Still, I have fun and do value the careful, the foot soldiers and periodic grand theoreticians of universities for what they have given all of us. Their prime contribution over the ages may be that of putting brakes on phase shifts of public beliefs, giving periods of stasis in which to rest and to think.

Thanks for the added lead on T(he)AAT.

Jim

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