Jacobin on Gould

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  • May 21, 2017 at 7:07 am #69117
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    link:https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/stephen-jay-gould-science-race-evolution-climate-change
    Remeasuring Stephen Jay Gould

    Matthew Lau

    Fifteen years after his death, Stephen Jay Gould’s ideas have never been more vital.

    “….Like Galileo, Gould did more than interpret science for laypeople. He was also a path-breaking evolutionary theorist and a canny political organizer for leftist causes.

    Along with his colleague Niles Eldredge, Gould changed the way biologists view the fossil record. His concept of punctuated equilibrium argued that new species emerge relatively rapidly and then remain mostly stable for millions of years. To his more parochial colleagues’ chagrin, Gould partly credited the inspiration for “punc eq” to the fact that he had “learned his Marxism, literally at his daddy’s knee.”

    Though he was redbaited for this comment, Gould and Eldredge were speaking as pluralists and historicists not dogmatists. “We make a simple plea for pluralism in guiding philosophies . . . for the basic recognition that such philosophies . . . constrain all our thought.”

    Historical context also acts as a constraint on new ideas. Darwin acknowledged the influence of the classical political economy of Smith and Malthus on his theory of evolution. Gould noted that his leftist upbringing and participation in the revolution of the Civil Rights Movement enabled him to recognize the importance of “punc eq’s” patterns of sudden and discontinuous evolutionary change….” see link

    May 21, 2017 at 10:44 am #69121
    Avatar photonittany ram
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    For years I subscribed to Natural History Magazine just for Gould’s column. He is one of my favorite science authors. Heck, he’s one of my favorite authors period. He was so well informed about so many subjects (art, history, sports, the humanities, etc) and he would eloquently weave all that knowledge into every essay. They were such a joy to read. I really miss them.

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