The
mediocrity principle is the
philosophical notion that "if an item is drawn at random from one of several sets or categories, it's likelier to come from the most numerous category than from any one of the less numerous categories". The principle has been taken to suggest that there is nothing very unusual about the
evolution of the Solar System,
Earth's history, the
evolution of biological complexity,
human evolution, or any one
nation. It is a
heuristic in the vein of the
Copernican principle, and is sometimes used as a philosophical statement about the place of humanity. The idea is to assume mediocrity, rather than starting with the assumption that a phenomenon is special, privileged, exceptional, or even
superior.