Abstract
Is evolution "a fact?" Am I a fact? What is a fact? The philosopher says that he can not say I am a fact, but that he knows that he is a fact, and that that is all he knows for sure, but I am not sure he knows that much. However, I will not dispute it with him. He and I and evolution may all be a hoax, but I think we have enough evidence to convince us that we will all have to stand or fall as hoaxes together. And that is enough to satisfy me, at the present stage of the game. If I am a hoax, you may be sure then there is no evolution, and if evolution is a hoax you may be sure there is no me, but if either evolution or I exist, then you need not doubt that the other exists too, and by the same token: for it is by the same process of piecing together, interpolating, a kind of continuity in the intervals between the separated but consistent momentary glimpses of us which you get sense evidence of from time to time, that you can reconstruct a convincing concept of each of us, evolution and me. Certainly, if any one could prove that evolution had not occurred, in spite of the overwhelming evidence we have of it, I should have my conception of the consistency of the universe so destroyed that I should see little reason left to credit the truth of my own existence. So remember, if you will, evolution is not a fact - no, not at all - no more a fact than that I exist or that you are reading the words on this page.