Freethought & Rationalism Archive

bluefugue · 05-24-2002, 05:34 PM

It can be found <a href="http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/05/24/gould/index.html" target="_blank">here.</a>

The Gould/Dawkins/Dennett wars seem to continue in Gould's death. Note this comment:

Quote:

The philosopher Daniel Dennett's book "Darwin's Dangerous Idea," which contains an exceptionally vicious attack on Gould and his works, is a sparkling example of the engineer's cast of mind.

"Exceptionally vicious"? Dennett simply disagreed with Gould and explained why... I don't recall any particular viciousness.

Quote:

Punctuated equilibrium, Gould's paleontological theory formulated with Niles Eldredge, was a more subtle attack on the hegemony of equations. What it says is that the gradual steady change that the equations of population biologists predict would be happening all the time under the gentle pressure of natural selection is not found in the fossil record because it is not found in nature.

What are these mysterious equations? Do they really predict that? Or is this just a straw man?

[ May 24, 2002: Message edited by: IesusDomini ]</p>

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