Why Fish Don't Exist

A term coined by a British scientist named Francis Galton—a relative of Charles Darwin—who used Darwin’s ideas about natural selection to create his own field of study, which suggested that traits like poverty and illiteracy were hereditary, and that through selective breeding, you could create a master race of humans. This study, which he named after the Greek words for ‘good’ and ‘birth’ caught the attention of David Starr Jordan, who became one of its early promoters in the United States.

The first specimen of a newly discovered species, typically placed in a jar and stored on a museum shelf. If lost, they cannot be replaced; the next example of the species to be placed in a jar and stored on a shelf is called a neotype. This reverence for naming, Miller says, is proof that even scientists appreciate ritual.

A concept from Franz Kafka that Miller learns from a friend. The Indestructible motivates a person to persist in the face of adversity whether they want to be motivated or not. Miller uses the concept to understand Jordan’s resumption of his work after the destruction of his fish specimens by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

A term coined to name beneficial delusions. It refers to untrue beliefs about oneself that some psychologists think promote flourishing, such as a belief in one’s superior intelligence or that one is deserving of success. Traditionally, these kinds of thoughts were condemned. But in the 1970s, some psychologists began to report that people with strong positive illusions were happier and better able to bounce back from setbacks. Studying David Starr Jordan, Miller thinks that he was bolstered by his positive illusions. 

The sarcastic name Jordan developed for the combination of science and philosophy that he saw in the scientific study of spiritualism. One of Jordan’s hobbies was to debunk the methods mediums used to make it seem as though they were contacting the dead. His employer, Jane Stanford, encouraged him to pursue the scientific study of spiritualism. The conflict was a source of considerable frustration for Jordan.