The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould"Nature is so wondrously complex and varied that almost anything possible does happen....I rejoice in its] multifariousness and leave the chimera of certainty to politicians and preachers."--from Ever Since Darwin Upon his death in 2002, Stephen Jay Gould stood at the pinnacle among observers of the natural world, recognized by Congress as a "living legend." His prodigious legacy--sixteen best-selling and prize-winning books, dozens of scientific papers, an unbroken series of three hundred essays in Natural History--combined to make Gould the most widely read science writer of our time. This indispensable collection of forty-eight pieces from his brilliant oeuvre includes selections from classics such as Ever Since Darwin and The Mismeasure of Man, plus articles and speeches never before published in book form. This volume, the last that will bear his name, spotlights his elegance, depth, and sheer pleasure in our world--a true celebration of an extraordinary mind. |
From inside the book
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Page vi
... Central Features of Darwinian Logic 238 The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change 261 Betting on Chance - and No Fair Peeking 267 The Power of the Modal Bacter , or Why the Tail Can't Wag the Dog 278 The Great Dying 286 The Validation ...
... Central Features of Darwinian Logic 238 The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change 261 Betting on Chance - and No Fair Peeking 267 The Power of the Modal Bacter , or Why the Tail Can't Wag the Dog 278 The Great Dying 286 The Validation ...
Page xiii
... central theme he had in mind ( " The Spandrels of San Marco " is an example ) . Thus his essays could be at once sharply focused yet exotically rich and surprising at the same time , giving equal play to both sides of his mind . Steve ...
... central theme he had in mind ( " The Spandrels of San Marco " is an example ) . Thus his essays could be at once sharply focused yet exotically rich and surprising at the same time , giving equal play to both sides of his mind . Steve ...
Page 6
... central theses , that of gradual evolutionary change . To the concern of many of his friends and supporters , who had argued that speciation was likely to occur by abrupt transitions , Darwin always insisted that " nature does not make ...
... central theses , that of gradual evolutionary change . To the concern of many of his friends and supporters , who had argued that speciation was likely to occur by abrupt transitions , Darwin always insisted that " nature does not make ...
Page 7
... central figures of the story of the fossils of the Burgess Shale that occupies much of Wonderful Life - adaptation implies that certain features of living systems , including perhaps intelli- gent life , are bound to evolve . This ...
... central figures of the story of the fossils of the Burgess Shale that occupies much of Wonderful Life - adaptation implies that certain features of living systems , including perhaps intelli- gent life , are bound to evolve . This ...
Page 8
... central theoretical issue underlying all the polemics that charac- terize what have become known as " the Darwin wars , " pitting Gould against Dawkins as his principal adversary , although in reality — and to the chagrin of ...
... central theoretical issue underlying all the polemics that charac- terize what have become known as " the Darwin wars , " pitting Gould against Dawkins as his principal adversary , although in reality — and to the chagrin of ...
Contents
I Have Landed | 15 |
The Median Isnt the Message | 26 |
The Streak of Streaks | 32 |
Baseball Father and Me | 41 |
A Brief Legal Survey from Scopes to Scalia | 49 |
Of Two Minds and One Nature | 59 |
Biographies | 65 |
Thomas Burnets Battleground of Time | 71 |
Opus 100 | 307 |
Size and Shape | 319 |
How the Zebra Gets Its Stripes | 324 |
Size and Scaling in Human Evolution | 333 |
Stages and Sequences | 359 |
Iconographies of Progress | 362 |
Up Against a Wall | 376 |
Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology | 391 |
The Lying Stones of Marrakech | 85 |
The Stinkstones of Oeningen | 103 |
The Razumovsky Duet | 114 |
The Power of Narrative | 127 |
Not Necessarily a Wing | 143 |
Worm for a Century and All Seasons | 155 |
Resolving Evolution Oddest Coupling | 166 |
The Piltdown Conspiracy | 182 |
Evolutionary Theory | 205 |
The Evolution of Life on Earth | 209 |
Challenges to NeoDarwinism and Their Meaning for a Revised View of Human Consciousness | 222 |
Revising the Three Central Features of Darwinian Logic | 238 |
The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change | 261 |
Betting on Chanceand No Fair Peeking | 267 |
The Power of the Modal Bacter or Why the Tail Cant Wag the Dog | 278 |
The Great Dying | 286 |
The Validation of Continental Drift | 290 |
Phyletic Size Decrease in Hershey Bars | 297 |
Size Form and Shape | 303 |
Pervasive Influence | 395 |
A Critique of the Adaptationist Program | 423 |
More Things in Heaven and Earth | 444 |
Posture Maketh the Man | 467 |
Freuds Evolutionary Fantasy | 473 |
Racism Scientific and Otherwise | 487 |
Paul Broca and the Heyday of Craniology | 490 |
The Most Unkindest Cut of All | 534 |
A Tale of Two Work Sites | 546 |
Carrie Bucks Daughter | 564 |
Just in the Middle | 574 |
Religion | 587 |
Nonoverlapping Magisteria | 590 |
The Diet of Worms and the Defenestration of Prague | 604 |
Darwin and the Munchkins of Kansas | 616 |
Hooking Leviathan by Its Past | 619 |
Sources and Acknowledgments | 636 |
641 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adaptationist adaptive adult africanus allometry Ambulocetus American ancestors animals Anthropology argued argument australopithecines baseball basic Beringer biological biologists body brain Broca Burnet Carrie Buck central Cerion claim complex cranial criminal cultural Cuvier Darwin Darwinian Dawson Devonian earth essay evolution evolutionary change evolutionary psychology evolutionary theory evolved example exaptation famous fossil Freud functional genes genetic geological groups hominids Homo human Huxley important increasing intellectual Lankester later life's lineages living major mammals Marx modern Natural History natural selection never nonadaptive Norton & Company organisms origin paedomorphosis Pakicetus paleontology pattern phyletic physical Piltdown pongids primary principle punctuated equilibrium races random Razumovsky reasons recapitulation relative rocks role S. J. Gould scientific scientists sequence skull social spandrels species Stephen Jay Gould stripes structure surface Teilhard theme tion tooth area University variation vertebrates W. W. Norton whales worms wrote York zebra