Description

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 complete bibliography of his writings to date and offers a multi-dimensional view of Gould's life-work not to be found in any other volume.

Features

• Gould was a major and highly influential intellectual figure over the past 30 years - in science and society in general and in evolutionary paleobiology in particular. Some assessments during his lifetime deemed him the most well-known scientist in the world.
• This is the first (and so far only) volume to critically explore his numerous and varied scientific and intellectual contributions and to judge how they do and will contribute to our overall understanding of the history of life.
• Gould's work was widely quoted and criticized, but less often read carefully, or clearly understood. This book serves as a "reader's guide" to Gould's thinking and writing, especially to his largely unreadable master work Structure of Evolutionary Theory.
• It contains the first complete bibliography of Gould's voluminous writing; nothing else available comes close.
• This is a knowledgeable, honest assessment of Gould's contributions that place him in context and clearly explain his place in science and evolution in the late 20th century.

Reviews

"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

Product Details

416 pages; 6 halftone and 22 line BW illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-537320-2ISBN10: 0-19-537320-0

About the Author(s)