| Stephen Jay Gould |
|---|
 |
| Born | September 10, 1941
Bayside, New York, United States |
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| Died | May 20, 2002(2002-05-20) (aged 60)
Manhattan, New York, United States |
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| Nationality | American |
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| Fields | Paleontology, Evolutionary biology History of Science |
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| Institutions | Harvard University,
American Museum of Natural History,
New York University |
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| Alma mater | Antioch College,
Columbia University |
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| Thesis | Pleistocene and Recent History of the Subgenus Poecilozonites (Poecilozonites) (Gastropoda: Pulmonata) in Bermuda: An Evolutionary Microcosm (1967) |
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| Doctoral advisor | R. L. Batten
J. Imbrie
Norman D. Newell |
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| Known for | Punctuated equilibrium, Non-overlapping magisteria |
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| Notable awards | Linnean Society of London's Darwin–Wallace Medal (2008)
Paleontological Society Medal (2002)
Sue Tyler Friedman Medal (1989)
Charles Schuchert Award (1975)
Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science (twice – 1983, 1990)
MacArthur Fellowship
National Book Award
National Book Critics Circle Award |
|---|
| Spouse | Deborah Lee (1965–?; divorced; 2 children)
Rhonda Roland Shearer (1995–2002; his death; 2 stepchildren) |
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Signature
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Stephen Jay Gould (
//; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American
paleontologist,
evolutionary biologist and
historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of
popular science of his generation.
[1] Gould spent most of his career teaching at
Harvard University and working at the
American Museum of Natural History in New York. In the later years of his life, Gould also taught biology and evolution at
New York University.
Gould's most significant contribution to evolutionary biology was the theory of
punctuated equilibrium, which he developed with
Niles Eldredge in 1972.
[2] The theory proposes that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability, which is punctuated by rare instances of
branching evolution. The theory was contrasted against
phyletic gradualism, the popular idea that evolutionary change is marked by a pattern of smooth and continuous change in the fossil record.
Most of Gould's empirical research was based on the
land snail genera
Poecilozonites and
Cerion. He also contributed to
evolutionary developmental biology, and has received wide praise for his book
Ontogeny and Phylogeny. In evolutionary theory he opposed strict selectionism,
sociobiology as applied to humans, and
evolutionary psychology. He campaigned against
creationism and proposed that science and religion should be considered two distinct fields (or "
magisteria") whose authorities do not overlap.
[3]
Gould was known by the general public mainly from his 300 popular essays in the magazine
Natural History,
[4] and his books written for a non-specialist audience. In April 2000, the
US Library of Congress named him a "
Living Legend".
[5]
Scientific career
Gould began his higher education at
Antioch College, graduating with a double major in geology and philosophy in 1963.
[20] During this time, he also studied at the
University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
[21] After completing graduate work at
Columbia University in 1967 under the guidance of
Norman Newell, he was immediately hired by
Harvard University where he worked until the end of his life (1967–2002). In 1973, Harvard promoted him to Professor of Geology and
Curator of
Invertebrate paleontology at the institution's
Museum of Comparative Zoology; he very often described himself as a taxonomist.
In 1982 Harvard awarded him the title of
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology. The following year, 1983, he was awarded fellowship of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he later served as president (1999–2001). The AAAS news release cited his "numerous contributions to both scientific progress and the public understanding of science". He also served as president of the
Paleontological Society (1985–1986) and of the
Society for the Study of Evolution (1990–1991).
In 1989 Gould was elected into the body of the
National Academy of Sciences. Through 1996–2002 Gould was
Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at
New York University. In 2001, the
American Humanist Association named him the Humanist of the Year for his lifetime of work. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the
Darwin-Wallace Medal, along with 12 other recipients. (Until 2008 this medal had been awarded every 50 years by the
Linnean Society of London.
[22])
Punctuated equilibrium
Early in his career, Gould and
Niles Eldredge developed the theory of
punctuated equilibrium, according to which evolutionary change occurs relatively rapidly, alternating with longer periods of relative evolutionary stability.
[2] Although Gould suggested the term itself, the basic concept was first presented in Eldredge's doctoral dissertation on
Devonian trilobites and in an article published the previous year on
allopatric speciation.
[23] According to Gould, punctuated equilibrium revised a key pillar "in the central logic of
Darwinian theory".
[8]
Some evolutionary biologists have argued that while punctuated equilibrium was "of great interest to biology",
[24] it merely modified
neo-Darwinism in a manner that was fully compatible with what had been known before.
[25] For example,
George Gaylord Simpson, in
Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1941), described evolutionary history as being characterized by long periods of stasis (bradytely) or gradual change (horotely), punctuated by short bursts of rapid change (tachytely). This description of evolutionary change, however, is not a theory of the process(es) that produces it. Punctuated equilibrium is such a theory.
Others have emphasized the theoretical novelty of punctuated equilibrium, and argued that evolutionary stasis had been "unexpected by most evolutionary biologists" and "had a major impact on paleontology and evolutionary biology".
[26]
Gould criticized the "Darwinian Fundamentalism" of John Maynard Smith, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett.
[27]
Some critics jokingly referred to the theory as "evolution by jerks",
[28] which elicited Gould to respond in kind by describing gradualism as "evolution by creeps".
[29]
Evolutionary developmental biology
Gould made significant contributions to
evolutionary developmental biology,
[30] especially in his work
Ontogeny and Phylogeny.
[20] In this book he emphasized the process of
heterochrony, which encompasses two distinct processes:
pedomorphosis and terminal additions. Pedomorphosis is the process where
ontogeny is slowed down and the organism does not reach the end of its development.
Terminal addition is the process by which an organism adds to its development by speeding and shortening earlier stages in the developmental process. Gould's influence in the field of evolutionary developmental biology continues to be seen in such areas as the study of evolution of feathers.
[31]
Selectionism and sociobiology
Gould championed
biological constraints such as the limitations of developmental pathways on evolutionary outcomes, as well as other non-selectionist forces in evolution. In particular, he considered many higher functions of the
human brain to be the unintended
side consequence or by-product of
natural selection, rather than direct
adaptations. To describe such co-opted features he coined the term
exaptation with
Elisabeth Vrba.
[32] Gould believed this understanding undermines an
essential premise of human
sociobiology and
evolutionary psychology.
Against "Sociobiology"
In 1975, Gould's Harvard colleague
E. O. Wilson introduced his analysis of animal behavior (including human behavior) based on a sociobiological framework that suggested that many social behaviors have a strong evolutionary basis.
[33] In response, Gould,
Richard Lewontin, and
others from the Boston area wrote the subsequently well-referenced letter to
The New York Review of Books entitled, "Against 'Sociobiology'". This
open letter criticized Wilson's notion of a "deterministic view of human society and human action".
[34]
But Gould did not rule out sociobiological explanations for many aspects of animal behavior, and later wrote: "Sociobiologists have broadened their range of selective stories by invoking concepts of
inclusive fitness and
kin selection to solve (successfully I think) the vexatious problem of
altruism—previously the greatest stumbling block to a Darwinian theory of social behavior... Here sociobiology has had and will continue to have success. And here I wish it well. For it represents an extension of basic Darwinism to a realm where it should apply."
[35]
Spandrels and the Panglossian Paradigm
With Richard Lewontin, Gould wrote an influential 1979 paper entitled, "The Spandrels of
San Marco and the panglossian paradigm",
[36] which introduced the architectural term "
spandrel" into evolutionary biology. In architecture, a spandrel is a curved area of masonry which exists between arches supporting a dome. Spandrels, also called
pendentives in this context, are found particularly in
Gothic churches.
When visiting
Venice in 1978, Gould noted that the spandrels of the
San Marco cathedral, while quite beautiful, were not spaces planned by the architect. Rather the spaces arise as "necessary architectural byproducts of mounting a dome on rounded arches." Gould and Lewontin thus defined "
spandrels" in the evolutionary biology context, to mean any biological feature of an organism that arises as a necessary side consequence of other features, which is not directly selected for by natural selection.
Proposed examples include the "masculinized genitalia in female
hyenas, exaptive use of an
umbilicus as a brooding chamber by snails, the shoulder hump of the giant
Irish deer, and several key features of human mentality."
[37]
In Voltaire's
Candide,
Dr. Pangloss is portrayed as a clueless scholar who, despite the evidence, insists that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds". Gould and Lewontin asserted that it is
Panglossian for evolutionary biologists to view all traits as atomized things that had been naturally selected for, and criticised biologists for not granting theoretical space to other causes, such as phyletic and developmental
constraints. The relative frequency of spandrels, so defined, versus adaptive features in nature, remains a controversial topic in
evolutionary biology.
[38] An illustrative example of Gould's approach can be found in
Elisabeth Lloyd's case study suggesting that the female orgasm is a by-product of shared developmental pathways.
[39] Gould also wrote on this topic in his essay "Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples",
[40] prompted by Lloyd's earlier work.
Evolutionary progress
Gould favored the argument that evolution has no inherent drive towards long-term "
progress". Uncritical commentaries often portray evolution as a
ladder of progress, leading towards bigger, faster, and smarter organisms, the assumption being that evolution is somehow driving organisms to get more complex and ultimately more like humankind. Gould argued that evolution's drive was not towards
complexity, but towards
diversification. Because life is constrained to begin with a
simple starting point ( like bacteria), any diversity resulting from this start, by random walk, will have a skewed distribution and therefore be perceived to move in the direction of higher complexity. But life, Gould argued, can also easily adapt towards simplification, as is often the case with
parasites.
[41]
In a review of
Full House,
Richard Dawkins approved of Gould's general argument, but suggested that he saw evidence of a "tendency for lineages to improve cumulatively their adaptive fit to their particular way of life, by increasing the numbers of features which combine together in adaptive complexes. ... By this definition, adaptive evolution is not just incidentally progressive, it is deeply, dyed-in-the-wool, indispensably progressive."
[42]
Cladistics
Gould never embraced
cladistics as a method of investigating evolutionary lineages and process, possibly because he was concerned that such investigations would lead to neglect of the details in historical biology, which he considered all-important. In the early 1990s this led him into a debate with
Derek Briggs, who had begun to apply quantitative cladistic techniques to the
Burgess Shale fossils, about the methods to be used in interpreting these fossils.
[43] Around this time cladistics rapidly became the dominant method of classification in evolutionary biology. Inexpensive but increasingly powerful personal computers made it possible to process large quantities of data about organisms and their characteristics. Around the same time the development of effective
polymerase chain reaction techniques made it possible to apply cladistic methods of analysis to biochemical and genetic features as well.
[44]
Technical work on land snails
Most of Gould's empirical research pertained to
land snails. He focused his early work on the
Bermudian genus
Poecilozonites, while his later work concentrated on the
West Indian genus
Cerion.
According to Gould "
Cerion is the land snail of maximal diversity in form throughout the entire world. There are 600 described species of this single genus. In fact, they're not really species, they all interbreed, but the names exist to express a real phenomenon which is this incredible morphological diversity. Some are shaped like golf balls, some are shaped like pencils. ... Now my main subject is the evolution of form, and the problem of how it is that you can get this diversity amid so little genetic difference, so far as we can tell, is a very interesting one. And if we could solve this we'd learn something general about the evolution of form."
[45]
Given
Cerion's extensive geographic diversity, Gould later lamented that if
Christopher Columbus had only cataloged a single
Cerion it would have ended the scholarly debate about which island Columbus had first set foot on in America.
[46]
Influence
Gould is one of the most frequently cited scientists in the field of evolutionary theory. His 1979 "spandrels" paper has been cited more than 4,000 times.
[47] In
Paleobiology—the flagship journal of his own speciality—only
Charles Darwin and
George Gaylord Simpson have been cited more often.
[48] Gould was also a considerably respected historian of science. Historian
Ronald Numbers has been quoted as saying: "I can't say much about Gould's strengths as a scientist, but for a long time I've regarded him as the second most influential historian of science (next to
Thomas Kuhn)."
[49]
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
Shortly before his death, Gould published a long treatise recapitulating his version of modern evolutionary theory:
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002).
As a public figure
Gould became widely known through his popular essays on
evolution in the
Natural History magazine. His essays were published in a series titled
This View of Life (a phrase from the concluding paragraph of
Charles Darwin's
Origin of Species) starting from January 1974 and ended in January 2001, amounting to a continuous publication of 300 essays.
[4] Many of his essays were reprinted in collected volumes that became
bestselling books such as
Ever Since Darwin and
The Panda's Thumb,
Hens' Teeth and Horses' Toes, and
The Flamingo's Smile.
A passionate advocate of evolutionary theory, Gould wrote prolifically on the subject, trying to communicate his understanding of contemporary evolutionary biology to a wide audience. A recurring theme in his writings is the history and development of pre-evolutionary and
evolutionary thought. He was also an enthusiastic baseball fan and
sabermetrician, and made frequent reference to the sport in his essays. Many of his baseball essays were anthologized in his posthumously published book
Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville (2003).
[50]
Although a proud Darwinist, Gould's emphasis was less
gradualist and
reductionist than most
neo-Darwinists. He fiercely opposed many aspects of
sociobiology and its intellectual descendant
evolutionary psychology. He devoted considerable time to fighting against
creationism,
creation science, and
intelligent design. Most notably, Gould provided expert testimony against the equal-time creationism law in
McLean v. Arkansas. Gould later developed the term "non-overlapping magisteria" (NOMA) to describe how, in his view, science and religion could not comment on each other's realm. Gould went on to develop this idea in some detail, particularly in the books
Rocks of Ages (1999) and
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox (2003). In a 1982 essay for
Natural History Gould wrote:
Our failure to discern a universal good does not record any lack of insight or ingenuity, but merely demonstrates that nature contains no moral messages framed in human terms. Morality is a subject for philosophers, theologians, students of the humanities, indeed for all thinking people. The answers will not be read passively from nature; they do not, and cannot, arise from the data of science. The factual state of the world does not teach us how we, with our powers for good and evil, should alter or preserve it in the most ethical manner.[51]
The anti-evolution petition
A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism spawned the
National Center for Science Education's pro-evolution counterpart
Project Steve, which is named in Gould's honor.
[52]
Gould also became a noted public face of science, often appearing on television. In 1984 Gould received his own
NOVA special on
PBS.
[53] Other appearances included interviews on
CNN's
Crossfire,
NBC's
The Today Show, and regular appearances on the
Charlie Rose show. Gould was also a guest in all seven episodes of the Dutch talk series
A Glorious Accident, in which he appeared with
Oliver Sacks.
[54]
Gould was featured prominently as a guest in
Ken Burns's
PBS documentary
Baseball, as well as
PBS's Evolution series. Gould was also on the Board of Advisers to the influential
Children's Television Workshop television show
3-2-1 Contact, where he made frequent guest appearances.
In 1997 he voiced a cartoon version of himself on the television series
The Simpsons. In the episode "
Lisa the Skeptic", Lisa finds a skeleton that many people believe is an
apocalyptic angel. Lisa contacts Gould and asks him to test the skeleton's
DNA. The fossil is discovered to be a marketing gimmick for a new mall.
[55] During production the only phrase Gould objected to was a line in the script that introduced him as the "world's most brilliant paleontologist".
[56] In 2002 the show paid tribute to Gould after his death, dedicating the
season 13 finale to his memory. Gould had died two days before the episode aired.
Controversy
Gould received many accolades for his scholarly work and popular expositions of natural history,
[18][57] but was not immune from criticism by biologists who felt his public presentations were out of step with mainstream evolutionary theory.
[58] The public debates between Gould's supporters and detractors have been so quarrelsome that they have been dubbed "The Darwin Wars" by several commentators.
[59][60][61][62][63]
John Maynard Smith, an eminent British evolutionary biologist, was among Gould's strongest critics. Maynard Smith thought that Gould misjudged the vital role of adaptation in biology, and was critical of Gould's acceptance of
species selection as a major component of biological evolution.
[64] In a review of
Daniel Dennett's book
Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Maynard Smith wrote that Gould "is giving non-biologists a largely false picture of the state of evolutionary theory."
[65] But Maynard Smith has not been consistently negative, writing in a review of
The Panda's Thumb that "Stephen Gould is the best writer of popular science now active... Often he infuriates me, but I hope he will go right on writing essays like these."
[66] Maynard Smith was also among those who welcomed Gould's reinvigoration of evolutionary paleontology.
[25]
One reason for criticism was that Gould appeared to be presenting his ideas as a revolutionary way of understanding evolution, and argued for the importance of mechanisms other than
natural selection, mechanisms which he believed had been ignored by many professional evolutionists. As a result, many non-specialists sometimes inferred from his early writings that Darwinian explanations had been proven to be unscientific (which Gould never tried to imply). Along with many other researchers in the field, Gould's works were sometimes deliberately taken out of context by
creationists as "proof" that scientists no longer understood how organisms evolved.
[67] Gould himself corrected some of these misinterpretations and distortions of his writings in later works.
[68]
As
documented by Kim Sterelny among others, Gould disagreed with
Richard Dawkins about the importance of
gene selection in evolution. Dawkins argued that evolution is best understood as competition among genes (or replicators), while Gould advocated the importance of multi-level selection, including selection amongst
genes,
cell lineages,
organisms,
demes,
species, and
clades.
[62]
Dawkins also found that Gould deliberately played down the difference between rapid
gradualism and
macromutation in his theory of
punctuated equilibrium.
[69] Criticism of Gould and his theory of punctuated equilibrium can be found in Dawkins'
The Blind Watchmaker and
Unweaving the Rainbow, as well as chapter 10 of Dennett's
Darwin's Dangerous Idea.
Cambrian fauna
Gould's interpretation of the
Cambrian Burgess Shale fossils in his book
Wonderful Life emphasized the striking morphological disparity (or "weirdness") of the Burgess Shale fauna, and the role of chance in determining which members of this fauna survived and flourished. He used the Cambrian fauna as an example of the role of contingency in the broader pattern of evolution.
His view was criticized by
Simon Conway Morris in his 1998 book
The Crucible of Creation.
[70] Conway Morris stressed those members of the Cambrian fauna that resemble modern taxa. He also promoted
convergent evolution as a mechanism producing similar forms in similar environmental circumstances, and argued in a subsequent book that the appearance of human-like animals is likely.
Paleontologists
Derek Briggs and
Richard Fortey have also argued that much of the Cambrian fauna may be regarded as
stem groups of living taxa,
[71] though this is still a subject of intense research and debate, and the relationship of many Cambrian taxa to modern phyla has not been established in the eyes of many palaeontologists.
Paleontologist
Richard Fortey noted that prior to the release of
Wonderful Life, Conway Morris shared many of Gould's sentiments and views. It was only after publication of
Wonderful Life that Conway Morris revised his interpretation and adopted a more
progressive stance towards the history of life.
[72]
Richard Dawkins also disagreed with Gould's interpretation of the Burgess Shale, arguing:
The extreme Gouldian view—certainly the view inspired by his rhetoric, though it is hard to tell from his own words whether he literally holds it himself—is radically different from and utterly incompatible with the standard neo-Darwinian model. ... For a new body plan—a new phylum—to spring into existence, what actually has to happen on the ground is that a child is born which suddenly, out of the blue, is as different from its parents as a snail is from an earthworm. No zoologist who thinks through the implications, not even the most ardent saltationist, has ever supported any such notion.[73]
Opposition to sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
Gould also had a long-running public feud with
E. O. Wilson and other evolutionary biologists about
human sociobiology and its later descendant
evolutionary psychology (which Gould, Lewontin, and
Maynard Smith opposed, but which
Richard Dawkins,
Daniel Dennett, and
Steven Pinker advocated).
[74] These debates reached their climax in the 1970s, and included strong opposition from groups like the
Sociobiology Study Group and
Science for the People.
[75] Pinker accuses Gould, Lewontin, and other opponents of evolutionary psychology of being "radical scientists", whose stance on human nature is influenced by politics rather than science.
[76] Gould stated that he made "no attribution of motive in Wilson's or anyone else's case" but cautioned that all human beings are influenced, especially unconsciously, by our personal expectations and biases. He wrote:
I grew up in a family with a tradition of participation in campaigns for social justice, and I was active, as a student, in the civil rights movement at a time of great excitement and success in the early 1960s. Scholars are often wary of citing such commitments. … [but] it is dangerous for a scholar even to imagine that he might attain complete neutrality, for then one stops being vigilant about personal preferences and their influences—and then one truly falls victim to the dictates of prejudice. Objectivity must be operationally defined as fair treatment of data, not absence of preference.[77]
Gould's primary criticism held that human sociobiological explanations lacked evidential support, and argued that adaptive behaviors are frequently assumed to be genetic for no other reason than their supposed universality, or their adaptive nature. Gould emphasized that adaptive behaviors can be passed on through
culture as well, and either hypothesis is equally plausible.
[78] Gould did not deny the relevance of biology to human nature, but reframed the debate as "biological potentiality vs. biological determinism". Gould stated that the
human brain allows for a wide range of behaviors. Its flexibility "permits us to be aggressive or peaceful, dominant or submissive, spiteful or generous…
Violence, sexism, and general nastiness
are biological since they represent one subset of a possible range of behaviors. But peacefulness, equality, and kindness are just as biological—and we may see their influence increase if we can create social structures that permit them to flourish."
[78]
The Mismeasure of Man
Gould was the author of
The Mismeasure of Man (1981), a
history and inquiry of
psychometrics and
intelligence testing. Gould investigated the methods of nineteenth century
craniometry, as well as the history of
psychological testing. Gould claimed that both theories developed from an unfounded belief in
biological determinism, the view that "social and economic differences between human groups—primarily
races,
classes, and
sexes—arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology."
[79]
It was reprinted in 1996 with the addition of a new foreword and a critical review of
The Bell Curve.
The Mismeasure of Man has generated perhaps the greatest controversy of all of Gould's books. It has received both widespread praise
[80] and extensive criticism,
[81] including claims of misrepresentation.
[82]
In 2011, a study conducted by six
anthropologists reanalyzed Gould's claim that
Samuel Morton unconsciously manipulated his skull measurements,
[83] and concluded that Gould's analysis was poorly supported and incorrect. They praised Gould for his "staunch opposition to racism" but concluded, "we find that Morton's initial reputation as the objectivist of his era was well-deserved."
[84] Ralph Holloway, one of the co-authors of the study, commented, "I just didn't trust Gould. ... I had the feeling that his ideological stance was supreme. When the 1996 version of 'The Mismeasure of Man' came and he never even bothered to mention
Michael's study, I just felt he was a charlatan."
[85] The group's paper was reviewed in the journal
Nature, which recommended a degree of caution, stating "the critique leaves the majority of Gould's work unscathed," and notes that "because they couldn't measure all the skulls, they do not know whether the average cranial capacities that Morton reported represent his sample accurately."
[86] The journal stated that Gould's opposition to racism may have biased his interpretation of Morton's data, but also noted that "Lewis and his colleagues have their own motivations. Several in the group have an association with the
University of Pennsylvania, and have an interest in seeing the valuable but understudied skull collection freed from the stigma of bias."
[86]
Non-overlapping magisterial
In his book
Rocks of Ages (1999), Gould put forward what he described as "a blessedly simple and entirely conventional resolution to ... the supposed conflict between science and religion."
[87] He defines the term
magisterium as "a domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution."
[87] The non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA) principle therefore divides the magisterium of science to cover "the empirical realm: what the Universe is made of (fact) and why does it work in this way (theory). The magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning and moral value. These two magisteria do not overlap, nor do they encompass all inquiry."
[87] He suggests that "NOMA enjoys strong and fully explicit support, even from the primary cultural stereotypes of hard-line traditionalism" and that NOMA is "a sound position of general consensus, established by long struggle among people of goodwill in both magisteria."
[87]
However, this view has not been without criticism. For example, in his book
The God Delusion,
Richard Dawkins argues that the division between religion and science is not as simple as Gould claims, as few religions exist without claiming the existence of
miracles, which "by definition, violate the principles of science".
[88] Dawkins also opposes the idea that religion has anything meaningful to say about ethics and values, and therefore has no authority to claim a
magisterium of its own.
[88] He goes on to say that he believes Gould is disingenuous in much of what he says in
Rocks of Ages.
[89] Similarly,
humanist philosopher
Paul Kurtz argues that Gould was wrong to posit that science has nothing to say about questions of ethics. In fact, Kurtz claims that science is a much better method than religion for determining moral principles.
[90]
Publications
Articles
Gould's publications were numerous. One review of his publications between 1965 and 2000 noted 479 peer-reviewed papers, 22 books, 300 essays,
[6] and 101 "major" book reviews.
[91] A select number of his papers are
listed online.
Books
The following is a list of books either written or edited by Stephen Jay Gould, including those published posthumously, after his death in 2002. While some books have been republished at later dates, by multiple publishers, the list below comprises the original publisher and publishing date.
- 1977. Ontogeny and Phylogeny, Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-63940-5 online preview
- 1977. Ever Since Darwin, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-06425-4
- 1980. The Panda's Thumb, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-01380-4
- 1980. Gould, Stephen Jay (December 1980), The Evolution of Gryphaea, New York: Arno Press, ISBN 0-405-12751-0
- 1981. The Mismeasure of Man, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-31425-0
- 1983. Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-01716-8
- 1985. The Flamingo's Smile, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-02228-5
- 1987. Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, Cambridge MA: Harvard Univ. Press, ISBN 0-674-89198-8 online preview
- 1987. An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas, N.Y.: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-02492-X
- 1987. (with Rosamond Wolff Purcell) Illuminations: A Bestiary, N.Y.: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-30436-1
- 1989. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-02705-8 . 347 pp.
- 1991. Bully for Brontosaurus, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-02961-1 . 540 pp.
- 1992. (with Rosamond Wolff Purcell) Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-03054-9
- 1993. Eight Little Piggies, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-03416-X
- 1993. The Book of Life. Preface, pp. 6–21. New York: W. W. Norton (S. J. Gould general editor, 10 contributors). ISBN 0-393-05003-3 review citing original publishing date
|
- 1995. Dinosaur in a Haystack, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-70393-9
- 1996. Full House: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-70394-7
- 1997. Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60541-0
- 1998. Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, N.Y.: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60141-5
- 1999. Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life, New York: Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-345-43009-3
- 2000. The Lying Stones of Marrakech, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60142-3
- 2000. Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet, New York: Three Rivers Press, ISBN 0-609-80586-X
- 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-00613-3 online preview
- 2002. I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60143-1
- 2003. Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-05755-0
- 2003. The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-609-60140-7
- 2006. The Richness of Life: the Essential Stephen Jay Gould, London: Jonathan Cape, ISBN 978-0-09-948867-5 This is an anthology of Gould's writings edited by Paul McGarr and Steven Rose, introduced by Steven Rose.
- 2007. Punctuated Equilibrium, Cambridge MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-02444-3 Book review
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