Weird how many people will unfollow you for saying Gould had meaningful contributions to evolutionary theory. Is this controversial or something now? I get he didn't like hereditarianism, but why overextend the argument so far against him?
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What exactly did Gould contribute? Not all traits are adaptive? Known since the 1850s. Evolution's speed varies? Known since the 1930s. Life tends to get more complex from a lower boundary of zero complexity? Basic bounded diffusion theory.
Punctuated equilibrium, spandrels, exaptations, historical contingency, the Cambrian Explosion, reanalysis of Haeckel's law and creation of evo-devo.
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Truthfully, the contribution by Gould is understated because *paleontology's* contribution to evolutionary theory is understated.
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People have good reason to remain hostile to people who throw sludge into the middle of a science to promote their career & because they want to make their field more Marxist. Damaging science both within the profession & as understood by non-specialists is a crime again science.
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Sure, but again, I think this was Gould's idiotic hubris towards the end of his career rather than him being some kind of sneaky saboteur.
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He was an ideological saboteur against sociobiology and evolutionary psychology ever since the mid-70s, when he was still pretty young....
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I still think spandrels was a good paper (do you not?). I've also gone to great lengths to describe the climate at Harvard during that time where a disagreement between Wilson and Gould turned into elevator confrontations. His hubris was most damaging in Mismeasure.
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I recommend you read Darwin’s Dangerous Idea for some illumination on both Spandrels and Punctuated Equilibrium.
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What's the nature of the criticism? That they're not true, or what?
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In depth consideration by a thoughtful philosopher of science. So won’t attempt detailed summary on Twitter.
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Ernst Mayr here claims priority on punctuated equilibrium http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/mayr_interview.html … Richard Lewontin, who it seems was also a TA in Mary’s class says not to take it seriously and calls it a caricaturehttps://evolution-institute.org/the-spandrels-of-san-marco-revisited-an-interview-with-richard-c-lewontin/ …
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1) Gould was asked to write the paper by his editor on punctuated equilibrium to extend Mayr's work. 2) It doesn't surprise me that Mayr thought punctuated equilibrium was his idea for the reason that he thought most things in evolution were covered by allopatric speciation.
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"DSW: So forget about Sociobiology—basically, you saw naïve adaptationism being a problem in general in the field of evolutionary biology?" "RL: Exactly."
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He did have a way of coining new terms for old ideas, I'll give him that.
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As an evolutionary psychologist (I am one, too), I think what perspectives you view as pertinent in evolutionary theory are myopic. Time & tempo in evolution is not something pop-gen gets. Additionally, neoteny & face perception was Gould's idea first.https://brewminate.com/stephen-jay-gould-did-he-bring-paleontology-to-the-high-table/ …
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There’s nothing in that article about neoteny or face perception. I’d be grateful if you could point me to anything about Gould’s contributions there.
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It's in Ontogeny & Phylogeny. It was this section that pissed a lot of anthropologists off because they ironically thought he was being too selectionist.
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I remember reading the "horses and humans having only one species left in their tree is a sign of weakness" and being puzzled for a while
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