January 1982: Stephen Gould in Eleuthera, Bahamas.
Gallery of Stephen Gould
1982
26 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
Paleontologist Stephen Gould at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge.
Gallery of Stephen Gould
1987
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1987: Gould in his office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Gallery of Stephen Gould
1993
1993, Amsterdam: Oliver Sacks, Daniel C. Dennett, Stephen Jay Gould, Rupert Sheldrake, Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Toulmin interviewed by Dutch filmmaker and journalist Wim Kayzer for the PBS documentary A Glorious Accident, to "discuss a variety of broad questions ranging from the existence of a soul, to the intellectual versus aesthetic arguments for vegetarianism…to the seemingly ludicrous question of whether the sun thinks."
Gallery of Stephen Gould
Stephen Gould
Achievements
Membership
American Association for the Advancement of Science
1993, Amsterdam: Oliver Sacks, Daniel C. Dennett, Stephen Jay Gould, Rupert Sheldrake, Freeman Dyson, and Stephen Toulmin interviewed by Dutch filmmaker and journalist Wim Kayzer for the PBS documentary A Glorious Accident, to "discuss a variety of broad questions ranging from the existence of a soul, to the intellectual versus aesthetic arguments for vegetarianism…to the seemingly ludicrous question of whether the sun thinks."
("Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" was Haeckel’s answer -...)
"Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" was Haeckel’s answer - the wrong one - to the most vexing question of nineteenth-century biology: what is the relationship between individual development (ontogeny) and the evolution of species and lineages (phylogeny)? In this, the first major book on the subject in fifty years, Stephen Jay Gould documents the history of the idea of recapitulation from its first appearance among the pre-Socratics to its fall in the early twentieth century. Mr. Gould explores recapitulation as an idea that intrigued politicians and theologians as well as scientists. He shows that Haeckel’s hypothesis - that human fetuses with gill slits are, literally, tiny fish, exact replicas of their water-breathing ancestors - had an influence that extended beyond biology into education, criminology, psychoanalysis (Freud and Jung were devout recapitulationists), and racism.
(More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould ...)
More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science. Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights.
(The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Cur...)
The definitive refutation to the argument of The Bell Curve. When published in 1981, The Mismeasure of Man was immediately hailed as a masterwork, the ringing answer to those who would classify people, rank them according to their supposed genetic gifts and limits. And yet the idea of innate limits - of biology as destiny - dies hard, as witness the attention devoted to The Bell Curve, whose arguments are here so effectively anticipated and thoroughly undermined by Stephen Jay Gould. In this edition, Dr. Gould has written a substantial new introduction telling how and why he wrote the book and tracing the subsequent history of the controversy on innateness right through The Bell Curve. Further, he has added five essays on questions of The Bell Curve in particular and on race, racism, and biological determinism in general. These additions strengthen the book's claim to be, as Leo J. Kamin of Princeton University has said, "a major contribution toward deflating pseudo-biological 'explanations' of our present social woes."
An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas
(Ranging as far as the fox and as deep as the hedgehog (th...)
Ranging as far as the fox and as deep as the hedgehog (the urchin of his title), Stephen Jay Gould expands on geology, biological determinism, "cardboard Darwinism," and evolutionary theory in this sparkling collection.
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
(High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry ...)
High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It holds the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived - a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book, Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.
Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
(In Full House, Gould presents the truth about progress, e...)
In Full House, Gould presents the truth about progress, evolution, and excellence, as well as a different way to understand trends other than as entities moving in a definite direction. Gould examines how the misinterpretation of data and statistics can result in bad science and social policy, while focusing on the nature of excellence from Plato to Darwin and the misconception that progress is inevitable.
Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown
(What is our concept of a millennium and how has its meani...)
What is our concept of a millennium and how has its meaning shifted? When does the new millennium begin? Why must our calendars be so complex, anyway? Best selling author Stephen Jay Gould applies his wit and erudition to exploring these questions, which cover one of today's most pressing subjects. Gould developed an interest in the approaching millennium at age 8, in 1950, when Life magazine marked the century's midpoint. Now, the evolutionary scientist holds the mirror up to all of our millennial passions in this wide-ranging discussion that reveals our foibles, absurdities, and uniqueness - in other words, our humanity.
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worm: Essays on Natural History
(This collection of essays from Stephen Jay Gould contains...)
This collection of essays from Stephen Jay Gould contains writing on subjects ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther, to fossils and the history of science.
Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life
(Since the Renaissance people have been plagued by the ten...)
Since the Renaissance people have been plagued by the tense battle between Science and Religion. Internationally renowned best-selling author and evolutionist Stephen Jay Gould sheds new light on the dilemma in this provocative, fascinating, and relevant audio. In elaborating and exploring the issue, Gould argues that in order to experience the fullness of being human, we must cultivate a meaningful balance between a life of spirit and a life of rational inquiry; 2 realms, equally essential but utterly different.
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Mending the Gap Between Science and the Humanities
(In his final book and his first full-length original titl...)
In his final book and his first full-length original title since Full House in 1996, the eminent paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould offers a surprising and nuanced study of the complex relationship between our two great ways of knowing: science and the humanities, twin realms of knowledge that have been divided against each other for far too long. To establish his two protagonists, Gould draws from a seventh-century b.c. proverb attributed to the Greek soldier-poet Archilochus that said roughly, "The fox devises many strategies; the hedgehog knows one great and effective strategy." While emphatically rejecting any simplistic attempt to assign either science or the humanities to one or the other of these approaches to knowledge, Gould uses this ancient concept to demonstrate that neither strategy can work alone, but that these seeming opposites can be conjoined into a common enterprise of tremendous unity and power. In building his case, Gould shows why the common assumption of an inescapable conflict between science and the humanities (in which he includes religion) is false, mounts a spirited rebuttal to the ideas that his intellectual rival E. O. Wilson set forth in his book Consilience, and explains why the pursuit of knowledge must always operate upon the bedrock of nature’s randomness. The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox is a controversial discourse, rich with facts and observations gathered by one of the most erudite minds of our time.
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and science historian. His theory of punctuated equilibrium posed a compelling emendation to Darwinian theories of evolution. As both a respected researcher and science popularizer, he has published many books, demonstrating a unique ability to make complex scientific data clear and entertaining to average readers and students.
Background
Stephen Gould was born on September 10, 1941, in Queens, New York, to the family of Leonard and Eleanor Gould. His father was a court stenographer and his mother was an artist. Both were Jewish by ancestry, second-generation immigrants who had elevated themselves into the lower echelons of America’s middle class. Leonard was a Marxist, so the family did not practice their religion.
When Gould was five years old, his father took him to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, New York. Gould later said that the skeletal display of Tyrannosaurus rex at the Museum sparked his interest in paleontology and made him want to become a paleontologist.
Education
In 1958 Gould graduated from Jamaica High School in New York City, New York. Although the quality of education there was high, Stephen, who was one of Darwin’s biggest fans, was disappointed to find evolution was hardly mentioned in biology classes.
Stephen had hoped to study biology at Harvard, but he had a classroom incident that cost him grade points and, perhaps, his place at Harvard. In his French class, a classmate seated in front of him was secretly listening to a World Series baseball game on a radio. When his classmate told him some good news, Stephen whooped ecstatically and threw his jacket in the air. His French teacher was outraged and deducted 10 points from his final grade.
Gould then attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and received a Bachelor of Arts in geology and philosophy in 1963. During his time at Antioch, he studied abroad at the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England.
In 1967, Gould got his doctorate in Paleontology. His thesis dealt with the fossil history of land snails on the island of Bermuda.
Immediately after receiving his doctorate, Stephen Jay Gould joined the faculty at Harvard University as an assistant professor of geology. He was tenured in 1971 and received a full professorship in 1973. In 1982, he became the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology.
During the 1970s, Gould developed the theory of punctuated equilibrium, a revised version of the Darwinian belief that species evolve over long periods of time. He proposed that most evolutionary change takes place in much shorter time frames - thousands instead of millions of years, and also in fairly rapid succession instead of gradual, miniscule developments.
In 1977 Gould published Ontogeny and Phylogeny in which he reconstructed the history of developmental biology and showed how development relates to evolution. A main topic of the book was recapitulation, the idea that the stages in the development of animals replay the stages of their evolutionary ancestors. Gould focused on the two opposing theories of developmental biology presented by Karl Ernst von Baer and Ernst Haeckel in Europe during the nineteenth century.
In this book, Gould described von Baer's laws of embryology, which claimed that embryos from different taxa look similar to each other early in development, but diverge from each other as development progresses. Von Baer argued that there was no relationship between developmental stages and evolutionary ancestry. Gould then described Haeckel's biogenetic law. The biogenetic law entails that as an embryo from a species develops, it repeats the adult stages of organisms from the species out of which the embryo's species evolved. Haeckel argued that there was a close relationship between development and ancestry, and thus opposed von Baer's theory.
In 1979, Gould again challenged some assumptions in evolutionary theory when he co-wrote "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme" with Richard Lewontin, an evolutionary biologist then working at Harvard University. In this paper, Gould and Lewontin claimed that the current adaptationist program in evolutionary biology, in which biologists sought to explain every trait of organisms as adaptations to environments, was naïve and failed to consider other possible factors in evolution, such as developmental constraints.
Stephen Jay Gould is best known for the theory of punctuated equilibrium, which proposes that the evolution of species is not a slow, gradual process of change, but in fact consists of long periods of stability broken by shorter periods of rapid change.
Gould was also an award-winning book author of extraordinary fecundity. In addition to authoring hundreds of academic papers for journals, he also found time to write hundreds of articulate, engaging, intelligent, and informative essays. With an enviable width and depth of knowledge, he conveyed science to his readers spiced with fascinating references to personal experiences, history, music, literature, architecture, and other diverse themes including his beloved baseball.
Gould was brought up in a secular Jewish home, but he did not formally practice religion and called himself an agnostic.
In 1981 Gould served as an expert witness at a trial in Little Rock, Arkansas, which challenged a state law ordering the teaching of creation science as well as evolution. Gould's testimony argued that the theories of creationism are contradicted by all available scientific evidence and therefore should not be considered scientific. Due to this testimony, creationism was recognized as a religion and not a science.
Politics
Stephen Jay Gould's father was a staunch Marxist, but the scientist described his own political views as "tend to the left of center."
Views
As a biologist, Gould is best known for the theory of “punctuated equilibria” which he formulated jointly with the American paleontologist Niles Eldredge. The fossil record is an imprint of the past providing researchers with extensive evidence not only for the fact of evolution but a detailed map of the branching pathways connecting the diversity of life. The evolutionary paths emanating from different life forms can be traced through the chronological ordering of this fossil record. In standard Darwinian explanation the pace of evolutionary change is assumed to be slow. Accordingly, small incremental changes are accumulated to amount eventually to the grand differences that scientists associate with distinct species. The fossil record, however, does not show continuous change between life forms; rather there seem to be gaps. These discontinuities in the record could reflect scientists’ incomplete knowledge or simply gaps in the fossil record itself. Gould and Eldredge attempted to explain the "gaps" in the fossil record by questioning the assumptions made about the pace of evolutionary change. They argued that for long periods species enjoy stability, giving way to rapid and drastic change over short periods of time. Thus, the so-called gaps in the fossil record actually reflect a fact about the pace of evolutionary change rather than representing missing evidence.
Gould viewed evolutionary biology as a historical science. To him evolution was not a deterministic unfolding of events but a process highly contingent on the vicissitudes of circumstance. His views brought him into conflict with some of his peers who tried to veer evolutionary biology toward a more mechanical paradigm in which the evolutionary process was reduced to natural selection operating at the genetic level. Perhaps his most visible sparring partner in this debate was Richard Dawkins, who had presented arguably the strongest version of the mechanical paradigm. Dawkins envisioned organisms as "lumbering robots" carrying out instructions encoded in the organism’s DNA. Dawkins departed from orthodox Darwinism in placing the gene as opposed to the organism as the unit of selection. Gould’s opposition to this view found expression in a number of interesting ways.
First, he argued that natural selection, while an important and perhaps even dominant motor of evolution, was not the only driving force. He derided the pans-electionism of his opponents as a "panglossian paradigm" in which every feature of the organism was furnished with an adaptationist "Just So" story - a reference to Rudyard Kipling’s humorous children’s stories, particularly the ones about the origin of features of animals. Gould considered a multiplicity of mechanisms as important in evolution. These mechanisms included random reproductive success of some features due to the dynamics of finite populations, as well as structurally inevitable correlates of selected features where these correlates provide no reproductive advantage.
Second, Gould opposed reduction of evolution to the level of genes. He accepted as a fact that genes are responsible for the heritability of traits, but argued that selection occurs at the level of the organism per the Darwinian paradigm. Evolution to Gould could not be understood unless one allowed for different hierarchical levels of study; this hierarchy included the genetic level, the organism, and the species - each one important for a different set of evolutionary questions.
Third, Gould argued that the reduction of the organism to its genotype led ineluctably to a whole set of mistaken ideas which he collectively termed biological determinism. Biological determinism, as expressed in the ideas of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, is the belief that complex behavior of organisms can be understood as following from the organism’s genetic make up, and are thus permanent features of the organism. As an example, a determinist might argue that a person’s genes determine her or his level of intelligence.
Gould went on to understand the questions that biological determinists tried to answer as historically conditioned. He saw in the determinist program a program that justified the stratification of our present-day society along gender, racial, and economic lines by providing these social realities a biological justification.
Gould’s scientific interests intersected significantly with his social commitments. He participated in public debates arguing against creationism and the genetic basis for behavioral differences between racial, gender, and class groupings. He wrote prolifically for the lay public on science, history, and society and achieved a considerable amount of fame and influence as a writer of popular science. As a biologist, Gould is best known for the theory of “punctuated equilibria” which he formulated jointly with the American paleontologist Niles Eldredge. The fossil record is an imprint of the past providing researchers with extensive evidence not only for the fact of evolution but a detailed map of the branching pathways connecting the diversity of life. The evolutionary paths emanating from different life forms can be traced through the chronological ordering of this fossil record. In standard Darwinian explanation, the pace of evolutionary change is assumed to be slow. Accordingly, small incremental changes are accumulated to amount eventually to the grand differences that scientists associate with distinct species. The fossil record, however, does not show continuous change between life forms; rather there seem to be gaps. These discontinuities in the record could reflect scientists’ incomplete knowledge or simply gaps in the fossil record itself. Gould and Eldredge attempted to explain the “gaps” in the fossil record by questioning the assumptions made about the pace of evolutionary change. They argued that for long periods species enjoy stability, giving way to rapid and drastic change over short periods of time. Thus, the so-called gaps in the fossil record actually reflect a fact about the pace of evolutionary change rather than representing missing evidence.
Gould viewed evolutionary biology as a historical science. To him, evolution was not a deterministic unfolding of events but a process highly contingent on the vicissitudes of circumstance. His views brought him into conflict with some of his peers who tried to veer evolutionary biology toward a more mechanical paradigm in which the evolutionary process was reduced to natural selection operating at the genetic level. Perhaps his most visible sparring partner in this debate was Richard Dawkins, who had presented arguably the strongest version of the mechanical paradigm. Dawkins envisioned organisms as “lumbering robots” carrying out instructions encoded in the organism’s DNA. Dawkins departed from orthodox Darwinism in placing the gene as opposed to the organism as the unit of selection. Gould’s opposition to this view found expression in a number of interesting ways.
First, he argued that natural selection, while an important and perhaps even dominant motor of evolution, was not the only driving force. He derided the pans-electionism of his opponents as a "panglossian paradigm" in which every feature of the organism was furnished with an adaptationist "Just So" story - a reference to Rudyard Kipling’s humorous children’s stories, particularly the ones about the origin of features of animals. Gould considered a multiplicity of mechanisms as important in evolution. These mechanisms included random reproductive success of some features due to the dynamics of finite populations, as well as structurally inevitable correlates of selected features where these correlates provide no reproductive advantage.
Second, Gould opposed the reduction of evolution to the level of genes. He accepted as a fact that genes are responsible for the heritability of traits, but argued that selection occurs at the level of the organism per the Darwinian paradigm. Evolution to Gould could not be understood unless one allowed for different hierarchical levels of study; this hierarchy included the genetic level, the organism, and the species - each one important for a different set of evolutionary questions.
Third, Gould argued that the reduction of the organism to its genotype led ineluctably to a whole set of mistaken ideas which he collectively termed biological determinism. Biological determinism, as expressed in the ideas of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology, is the belief that complex behavior of organisms can be understood as following from the organism’s genetic make up, and are thus permanent features of the organism. As an example, a determinist might argue that a person’s genes determine her or his level of intelligence.
Gould went on to understand the questions that biological determinists tried to answer as historically conditioned. He saw in the determinist program a program that justified the stratification of our present-day society along gender, racial, and economic lines by providing these social realities a biological justification.
Gould’s scientific interests intersected significantly with his social commitments. He participated in public debates arguing against creationism and the genetic basis for behavioral differences between racial, gender, and class groupings. He wrote prolifically for the lay public on science, history, and society and achieved a considerable amount of fame and influence as a writer of popular science.
Membership
"I’m a profound anti-romantic. Romanticism is dangerous. Romanticism untrammeled by intellect gives rise to fascism after all."
American Association for the Advancement of Science
,
United States
American Society of Naturalists
,
United States
Paleontological Society
,
United States
Sigma Xi
,
United States
Personality
Stephen Jay Gould spoke French, German, Russian, and Italian.
Interests
book collecting, architecture, singing
Philosophers & Thinkers
Charles Darwin
Politicians
Noam Chomsky
Writers
William Schwenck Gilbert
Sport & Clubs
baseball, New York Yankees
Athletes
Joe DiMaggio
Connections
On October 3, 1965, Stephen Jay Gould married Deborah Lee, an artist. They had two children. In 1995, Gould divorced Deborah Lee and married Rhonda Shearer.
Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution
Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould was, until his death in 2002, America's best-known natural scientist. Anyone with an interest in one of America’s great scientists, or in paleontology, evolutionary theory, or intellectual history will find Stephen Jay Gould and the Politics of Evolution to be a fascinating exploration of the man and his ideas.
