Review: Life's Grandeur
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsNow hear this: Evolution is not progressive. We (humans) are not the be-all and end-all of nature's plan. You've heard these lines before: They are quintessentially Gould. In this short volume Gould (Dinosaur in a Haystack, 1995, etc.) elaborates on this theme. Among the examples he advances is one that should prove dear to the hearts of baseball fans: Why, Gould asks, are there no .400 hitters anymore? The answer requires looking not at batting but at how the game of baseball has varied over time. There has been a general improvement in play so that the normal curve of batting averages no longer has a tail trailing off to the right where the few .400 stars were to be found. Instead, in Gould's phrase, we have hit a right wall--a boundary reflecting the limits of human performance. A second, longer, and more complex example deals with evolutionary data. If we eliminated human hubris, we would see that it is bacteria that were in the beginning, are now, and ever will be the most populous and successful kingdom--virtually at the left wall boundary in terms of minimally complex organisms capable of life. Over time, there was nothing else for life to do but to expand to the right. However, using fossil records, Gould demonstrates that there was no directionality: Descendants didn't always get more complex--they could just as easily revert to less complex forms. What befuddles the issue is the matter of cultural ""evolution""--a word Gould would strike in favor of the word ""change."" Cultural inventions (including reading and writing) have enabled great leaps of technical ""progress"" in nanoseconds of time, reckoned by evolutionary standards. As a species, however, we remain an anomalous tail in the full house of life on earth. So we should accept our place with becoming humility. Gould fans will be charmed at the cogency and cleverness of his arguments--but expect a wall of opposition from pious and diehard progressivists.
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Rob - GoodreadsTo "evolve" if too often defined as to improve, or become better. This book counters that view, offering evidence that evolution is adjustments made due to changes in the local environment. As the ... Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Trae - GoodreadsAwesome...just when I think I understand evolution I get to learn something that alters and enhances my understanding and appreciation of the theory of evolution. The only weakness...and this is a ... Read full review
Review: Life's Grandeur: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Andrea Walker - GoodreadsFascinating, as usual. I also now know more about baseball than I ever wanted to, but that was also very interesting. I imagine I'm like most people in disliking the idea that humanity isn't special ... Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Christin - GoodreadsI've got to read this book for extra credit for my Microbiology course, but so far, pretty interesting Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Eric Boucher - GoodreadsFrom baseball to the origins of life Gould changed the way I looked at sports and the world around me. Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Jeff Smith-Hayzer - GoodreadsLife's Grandeur, Stephen J. Gould If you are not familiar with Gould's work then you should be warned that this is no ordinary, box standard evolutionary theorist. Being a strict Darwinian, Gould ... Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Monsoon - GoodreadsThe ideas outlined in this book can easily get a 5-star rating. My understanding of evolution after reading it is entirely different from what it was before doing so. Gould shattered some old concepts ... Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Carlo - GoodreadsThe ideas outlined in this book can easily get a 5-star rating. My understanding of evolution after reading it is entirely different from what it was before doing so. Gould shattered some old concepts ... Read full review
Review: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
User Review - Nightlite - GoodreadsI loved Gould's book on the Burgess Shale. But this book arguing for a materialist view of evolution where random chance produces the marvelous variety of life we know, just didn't hold water for me ... Read full review
