The Structure of Evolutionary Theory - Hardcover

Gould, Stephen Jay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674006135 ISBN 13: 9780674006133

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The world's most revered and eloquent interpreter of evolutionary ideas offers here a work of explanatory force unprecedented in our time--a landmark publication, both for its historical sweep and for its scientific vision.

With characteristic attention to detail, Stephen Jay Gould first describes the content and discusses the history and origins of the three core commitments of classical Darwinism: that natural selection works on organisms, not genes or species; that it is almost exclusively the mechanism of adaptive evolutionary change; and that these changes are incremental, not drastic. Next, he examines the three critiques that currently challenge this classic Darwinian edifice: that selection operates on multiple levels, from the gene to the group; that evolution proceeds by a variety of mechanisms, not just natural selection; and that causes operating at broader scales, including catastrophes, have figured prominently in the course of evolution.

Then, in a stunning tour de force that will likely stimulate discussion and debate for decades, Gould proposes his own system for integrating these classical commitments and contemporary critiques into a new structure of evolutionary thought.

In 2001 the Library of Congress named Stephen Jay Gould one of America's eighty-three Living Legends--people who embody the "quintessentially American ideal of individual creativity, conviction, dedication, and exuberance." Each of these qualities finds full expression in this peerless work, the likes of which the scientific world has not seen--and may not see again--for well over a century.

About this title

About the Author

Stephen Jay Gould was Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard University and Vincent Astor Visiting Professor of Biology at New York University. A MacArthur Prize Fellow, he received innumerable honors and awards and wrote many books, including Ontogeny and Phylogeny and Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle (both from Harvard).

Reviews

When America's best-known scientist publishes his major work, it is an event. And The Structure of Evolutionary Theory is indeed an event, but not one aimed at the general reader. It is a monumental work, both in size (1,400-plus pages) and in scope--it sets out to do nothing less than reformulate Darwin's theory of evolution. "Nothing of Darwin's central logic has faded or fully capsized," Gould writes, "but his theory has been transformed, along his original lines, into something far different, far richer, and far more adequate to guide our understanding of nature." Among the many threads that weave through the book runs a major Gouldian theme, the idea of species selection--that species, not just individuals, compete against one another for survival. The style is vintage Gould. He opens with an extended exposition on a metaphor comparing evolutionary theory to the Duomo (Cathedral) of Milan: Darwin laid the foundation of a great edifice, but in the process of erection, the superstructure has been altered by his successors, just as construction of the Duomo occupied several centuries and incorporated an amalgam of changing styles, from Gothic to Baroque. Fascinating historical digressions, even asides about "Mr. Berra," pepper the book, so that scholarly though the work is, the nonexpert, dipping into the deep waters here and there or reading just the opening chapter, will find much to delight and to inform.

Editors of Scientific American

Over the past few years, a series of big books on evolution have been published: Human Natures by Paul Ehrlich, Consilience by E.O. Wilson and What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr, to name just three. Now comes the biggest of them all (physically, at least) a 1,400-plus-page cinderblock of a book from Harvard zoology professor Stephen Jay Gould (The Lying Stones of Marrakech; Ontogeny and Philogeny). The culmination of about 25 years of research and study, this book traces the history of evolutionary thought and charts a path for its future. After Darwin wrote The Origin of Species in 1859, scientists created a synthesis of genetics, ecology and paleontology to explain how natural selection could produce change and form new species. Gould thinks that this "modern synthesis" has hardened into a dogma stifling the science. Gould claims that an obsession with "selfish genes" and simplistic versions of natural selection blinds researchers to the significance of new discoveries about how evolution really works. The rules by which embryos develop, for example, create constraints that channel the flow of evolution. Asteroid impacts and other catastrophes can send evolution off on unpredictable trajectories. And selection, Gould contends, may act not just on individuals or their genes, but on entire species or groups of species, and in ways we've only begun to understand. This book presents Gould in all his incarnations: as a digressive historian, original thinker and cunning polemicist. It is certainly not a perfect work. Gould gives short shrift to the tremendous discoveries spurred by "Darwinian fundamentalism," while he sometimes overplays the importance of hazy theoretical arguments that support his own claims. But even Gould's opponents will recognize this as the magnum opus of one of the world's leading evolutionary thinkers.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gould's readers, dismayed at his announcement that The Lying Stones of Marrakech [BKL Ja 1 & 15 00] was his next-to-last book of essays, needn't have worried. In place of selected essays, Gould offers his magnum opus, an all-encompassing history and analysis of classical and twentieth-century evolutionary theory. This astonishing feat of scholarship and creativity is intimidating at first glance, given its bulk, but Gould's signature wit, erudition, warmth, and vigor are everywhere evident. A keenly visual thinker, he even provides an icon emblematic of his vision of Darwin's three central principles of natural selection: a drawing by the seventeenth-century scientist and artist Augustino Scilla of a three-branched articulated coral. The link between art and science is the key to Gould's literary elucidation of complex concepts, and it surfaces often in unexpected and gratifying passages. After performing a sustained, enlightening exegesis of Origin of Species, he launches an energetic history of its contentious reception, moving steadily toward a full account of his own collaborative and controversial contribution to evolutionary theory. For all its rigorous detail and painstaking historical, scientific, and philosophical explication, Gould's massive work is profoundly personal and dramatic, laced as it is with his great love for Darwin, frank intellectual autobiography, and his belief that the history of evolutionary thought "constitutes an epic tale." The beauty of this, in his words, "damnedly interminable book," is that every scientifically inclined reader will be affected by some aspect of Gould's passionate argument, humanistic sensibility, and sheer pleasure in the noble pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The ideas and literary stylings in this massive work by MacArthur Prize Fellow Gould (Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Harvard) are both extravagantly bountiful and stupefyingly overwrought. Gould's overarching purpose is to expound upon how three main tenets of Darwinism have permuted throughout numerous historical and contemporary writings on evolutionary theory. In his erudite discussions, there is no significant school of thought that Gould fails to analyze, interpret, and contextualize thoroughly. While indisputably the product of one of the most fertile intellects of modern science, this book is also bloated, redundant, and self-indulgent. The longest chapter, at around 250 pages, celebrates Gould's own theory of punctuated equilibrium, including an interesting but utterly extraneous review of how the theory has been depicted in general culture. For its exhaustive scholarly achievement, this book is indispensable for any natural history, philosophy of science, or good general science collection. Still, the ultimate critique is that it is very highly recommended but with serious reservations. Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., SUNY at Albany
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674006135
• ISBN 13: 9780674006133
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1464