Pages 95-103

Return to History 8 Environment Bone From a Dry Sea

15. Rules have exceptions

As we learned throughout the course of our Historiography study, rules have exceptions. In the book, A Bone from a Dry Sea, Vinny says, "'I mean which actually made [learning to walk on two legs] easy, like having water to hold you up while you were learning to stand. And of course they wouldn't need fur...' 'Otters have fur. So do some seals,'" (86) says her father, a taphonomist. Although Vinny's father is not providing an exception to a legitimate rule, he is providing exceptions to her reasoning that apes and monkeys of the sort were once water animals, leaving them capable of learning to walk on two legs while in water. For example, there are many exceptions to the law of gravity. Some would be airplanes that fly, balloons that float, and hot air balloons that also fly. The reasons that rules have exceptions are "observations can be affected by more than one principle, errors in measurements, and differences in perception" (Manual 6).

- Lily McCullough

Image from: http://www.dallashotairballoons.com

Sources:

"Historiography." Origins. Comp. Rosie Beniretto. Ed. Ganesa Collins. Houston, Texas: St. John's School, 2015-2016. 6. Print

Dickinson, Peter. A Bone from a Dry Sea. New York, NY: Open Road Integrated Media, 1992.