Stephen Jay Gould: Reflections on His View of Life 1st Edition by Patricia Kelley (PDF)

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Considered by many during his lifetime as the most well-known scientist in the world, Stephen Jay Gould left an enormous and influential body of work. A Harvard professor of paleontology, evolutionary biology, and the history of science, Gould provided major insights into our understanding of the history of life. He helped to reinvigorate paleontology, launch macroevolution on a new course, and provide a context in which the biological developmental stages of an organism’s embryonic growth could be integrated into an understanding of evolution. This book is a set of reflections on the many areas of Gould’s intellectual life by the people who knew and understood him best: former students and prominent close collaborators. Mostly a critical assessment of his legacy, the chapters are not technical contributions but rather offer a combination of intellectual bibliography, personal memoir, and reflection on Gould’s diverse scientific achievements. The work includes the most completebibliography of his writings to date and offers a multi-dimensional view of Gould’s life-work not to be found in any other volume.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “He [Gould] emerges as a genius of sorts, but – appropriately for his geologist beginnings – with feet not unmarked by clay.” – Nature”One of the first important works in what may someday be an extensive field of Gouldiana. The wonderful collection of essays reflecting on Gould’s view of life, edited by his former students, presents a variety of insightful assessments of his work, while also giving us a glimpse of the man himself through the eyes of people who knew him well – his students and close colleagues. All the authors who a clear affection for Gould and an admiration for his accomplishments. However, none are servile followers, unwilling to criticize (Gould would have admired them for this). Thus, this volume is not, as the editors note their preface, an attempt at hagiography, but rather, a serious engagement with Gould’s intellectual legacy.” — Monthly Review”An interesting collection of essays.”–American Scientist”There are many perceptive and useful essays in this collection, and anyone interested in the development of 20th -century evolutionary thought will be fascinated by their insights.”–Reports of the National Center for Science Education About the Author Warren D. Allmon is Director of the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY, and Professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University.Patricia H. Kelley is Professor of Geology at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.Robert M. Ross is Associate Director for Outreach at the Paleontological Research Institution, Ithaca, NY.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If you enjoy reading Stephen Jay Gould’s essays (as he fondly called them) on evolutionary theory, paleontology, and numerous other topics, you probably won’t enjoy reading this book entitled “Stephen Jay Gould, Reflections on His View of Life.” Mr. Gould knew the secret of the success of his books was clear writing, a focus on specific topics illustrating his theme, and the avoidance of stultifying technical jargon, coupled with an adamant refusal to dumb down the science. (Mr. Gould could more than hold his own in the technical jargon department when writing for the professional paleontology audience, as evidenced by his book “The Structure of Evolutionary Theory.”)This book is a series of chapters, written mostly by professional, practicing scientists who were students of Mr. Gould, in the style of a research paper using sweeping generalities and boring technical language. There is no meaningful attempt to engage the general reader who may have an interest in the scientific subject matter, but isn’t interested in being a practicing paleontologist or geologist.Take this random example: “The stochastic simulations illustrated how clade shape varied as probability of branching and extinction varied from low to high. Longer durations (but generally lower maximum diversities) were associated with low probabilities, shorter durations (but generally higher maximum diversities) were associated with higher probabilities of branching and extinction. This parallels the later observations of Norman Gilinsky (1994) that decreased volatility of diversity dynamics characterizes longer-lived still living taxa compared to shorter-lived extinct taxa.” There are whole sections and chapters in this book written in that style.Part of the book appears to be some of his students, who acknowledged that Mr. Gould was very loyal to them when they were his graduate students, distancing themselves from some of his theories which became unpopular with some scientists with whom Mr. Gould famously feuded in his lifetime. Some of it struck me as opportunistic and particularly reprehensible given that Mr. Gould is no longer able to defend his positions.There also appears to be an element of personal pay-back. One of the authors says that Mr. Gould “lacked personal knowledge of the role that faith plays in the life of the believer. Despite his professed respect for religion, he could be very dismissive of others’ religious beliefs.” She then goes on to bolster this statement with the story of how he wouldn’t alter the schedule of a day-long symposium being held on a Sunday so they could attend church. Obviously Mr. Gould is not around to defend himself, but lots of meetings are held on Saturdays and Sundays to accommodate the fact that most people have to work on the other days of the week, and if it is all-day, it may conflict with the time you usually go to church. What I found most telling, though, was that there seemed to be no acknowledgement that if the day was changed to Saturday or Friday, it might conflict with the religious practices of Jews or Muslims. Presumably, the author had no concern for the people at the hotel or who catered the symposium as to whether their church-going schedules were affected. As it turned out, they solved it by taking the obvious course of going to an earlier service. Such narcissism!There is a book waiting to be written that clearly explains how Mr. Gould’s theories, particularly on punctuated equilibrium, have evolved and fared with time, what the substantive differences were between Mr. Gould and other practicing scientists, especially Richard Dawkins, and what Mr. Gould was like as a person. Although this book teases you into believing that it is that book, it, in fact, fails spectacularly, collapsing in a muddled, poorly written piece.(I did not personally know Mr. Gould – having never met him – nor do I know any of the authors of this book. I am not a scientist, although I do read lots of books on science. I am a fan of Mr. Gould only in the sense that I am a fan of his books, which helped me to enjoy and understand paleontology and evolutionary biology.)

⭐Excelente trabajo de los editores Warren Almon,Patricia Kelley & Robert Moss acerca del gran divulgador cientifico Stephen Jay Gould en el cual se muestran en diversos ensayos y reflexiones la gran influencia que tuvo Gould en en campo de la biologia moderna;muy adecuado para quienes esten interesados en la evolución y todas sus implicancias en el mundo moderno.

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⭐The editors wrote in the Preface to this 2009 book, “Although Steve Gould’s death on May 20, 2002, provided the immediate impetus for this book, its original motivation came from a review of his book ‘Structure of Evolutionary Theory,’ published just before his death. That review… suggested to us that Steve’s science was even more widely misunderstood than we had thought. We said to each other that someone needed to ‘do something’ about this situation… After his death… the three of us were asked to organize a symposium in Steve’s memory at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America… We invited students and close colleagues of Steve to participate in this symposium, asking each to explore an aspect of his thought … from the point of view of one who had known well, learned under, and/or worked with him for many years. Our logic was that such people would be more likely to have a clearer-than-average understanding of his thought and its significance… the present volume is the first (and so far only) book to explore critically Steve Gould’s numerous and varied scientific and intellectual contributions… and what their long-term impact may be on our understanding of the history of life… In some sense it is intended as a ‘reader’s guide’ to Gould.” (Pg. vii-viii)Warren D. Allmon suggests, “Steve caused a lot of his own problems. Much of the criticism that PE [punctuated equilibrium] received was (and is) unjustified, but some resulted from confusion sown by Steve himself. This was not… because he was ducking and dodging, changing his views to fit whatever would work. It was largely because… he rapidly ran PE to (and perhaps beyond) its logical extremes, and also because he used hyperbole and incendiary language, even when he should have known better… Yet despite his admission that his earlier rhetoric might have been a bit excessive and even confusing at times, it is striking that Steve continued even as late as 2002 to make exactly the same kind of extreme statements.” (Pg. 15, 17)He adds, “At first glance, Steve appears to have shared completely the atheistic and materialist view of critics of religion such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett…. He also repeatedly and stridently denied that science or nature (or, by implication, God) could be the source of human values or ethics, because almost ANY message can be (and had been) so derived… This philosophy was straight out of both Darwin and Enlightenment humanism… Yet Steve did not engage in the strident criticism of religion for which Dawkins and Dennett are well known… Instead, he put forth what … he called ‘non-overlapping magisteria,’ or NOMA… This view held that science and religion occupy separate but equal realms of human endeavor… and neither could or should make claims on the other’s legitimate domain of influence… NOMA, however, did not fare very well among theologians or philosophers… The basic reason lay in Steve’s definition of religion… [he] had to define religion in a way that excluded much of that religious people value, namely a caring God with supernatural powers.” (Pg. 39-41)He points out, “While the abundant evidence for stasis provides ample empirical confirmation of at least a core of PE, the continuing paucity of evidence for species selection… appears to me to be a serious problem, one that Steve did not adequately acknowledge… there are by my count EXACTLY THREE well-documented examples of species selection, and all are more than twenty years old… I (as a fairly sympathetic observer) still find the paucity of evidence to be at least strongly suggestive evidence of paucity.” (Pg. 60-61)Dana H. Geary explains, “During the late 1980s and into the 1990s, Steve softened his rhetoric and spent considerable effort trying to explain what he had and had not meant…. The notion that PE now implied a modest expansion of neodarwinian theory rather than its burial, led his critics to characterize this final stage as a retreat… Steve’s deep frustration with this literature stems from what he sees as a misrepresentation of his views… The misrepresenations, when repeated often enough, made his later denials sound like a retreat… Similarly, critics pounced upon Steve’s supposed endorsement of [Richard] Goldschmidt saltationism… claiming that he was also attempting to revise our notions of microevolutionary mechanics.” (Pg. 133-134)Another essay observes, “Steve had genuine doubts about some of the substantive claims of modern environmentalism, and therefore seemingly could not convince himself that the environmental crisis was real, or at least that it was/is as big a crisis as some environmentalists suggested.” (Pg. 159)Patricia H. Kelley states, “Gould misjudged creationism as a ‘uniquely American’ phenomenon. Within the United States, Gould… also misjudged creationism to be a marginal, minority form of Christianity that was characteristically southern, rural, and poor. This conclusion is perhaps understandable based on the notoriety southern states have gained for their antievolution/pro-creationism activities… Ronald Numbers… has convincingly argued, however, that the popular stereotype of the American South as uniquely and traditionally hostile to evolution is incorrect.” (Pg. 182)She adds, “Though Steve mellowed with time (he even thanked me when I told him he was in my prayers, a few weeks before his untimely death), he never understood the importance of faith in the believer’s life. At best, he viewed it as a psychological crutch in a world that can be overwhelming with hardship, tragedy, and confusion.” (Pg. 186)Robert M. Ross notes, “As many have suggested about his writings, his lectures seem to have lost their focus over the years… Student ratings of Gould’s effectiveness as a lecturer declined over the course of the two decades that he taught… even as the average rating for Harvard professors increased slightly. Having been one of the most popular lecturers on campus in the early 1980s, by the late 1990s he was rated below average.” (Pg. 248)This is a very insightful book, that will be “must reading” for anyone who wants to know more about the “background” of Gould’s ideas.

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