Everything about Stephen Jay Gould totally explained
Stephen Jay Gould (
September 10,
1941 –
May 20,
2002) was a prominent
American paleontologist,
evolutionary biologist, and
historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of
popular science of his generation. Gould spent most of his career teaching at
Harvard University and working at the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York.
Gould's based the preponderance of his
empirical research on
land snails. Gould helped develop the theory of
punctuated equilibrium, in which evolutionary stability is marked by instances of rapid change. He contributed to
evolutionary developmental biology. In evolutionary theory, he opposed strict selectionism,
sociobiology as applied to humans, and evolutionary psychology. He campaigned against
creationism and proposed that
science and
religion should be considered two compatible, complementary fields, or "magisteria," whose authority doesn't overlap.
Many of Gould's
Natural History essays, were reprinted in collected volumes, such as
Ever Since Darwin and
The Panda's Thumb, while his popular treatises included books such as
The Mismeasure of Man,
Wonderful Life and
Full House.
Biography
Born and raised in the
Queens borough of
New York City,
New York, Gould's father Leonard was a
court stenographer, and his mother Eleanor was an
artist. When Gould was five years old, his father took him to the Hall of Dinosaurs in the
American Museum of Natural History, where he first encountered
Tyrannosaurus rex. "I had no idea there were such things—I was awestruck," Gould once recalled. It was in that moment that he decided to become a paleontologist.
Raised in a
secular Jewish home, Gould didn't formally practice
religion and preferred to be called an
agnostic. Politically, though he "had been brought up by a
Marxist father," he's stated that his father's politics were "very different" from his own. According to Gould, the most influential political book he read was
C. Wright Mills' The Power Elite, as well as the political writings of
Noam Chomsky. Gould continued to be exposed to
progressive viewpoints on the politicized campus of
Antioch College in the early
1960s. In the
1970s, Gould joined a left-wing academic organization called "
Science for the People." Throughout his career and writings he spoke out against
cultural oppression in all its forms, especially what he saw as
pseudoscience in the service of
racism and
sexism.
Gould was twice married. His first marriage was to artist Deborah Lee, whom he met while attending
Antioch College. They were married on
October 3 1965. His second marriage was to sculptor
Rhonda Roland Shearer in 1995. Gould has two children, Jesse and Ethan, by his first marriage, and two stepchildren, Jade and London, by his second.
In July of 1982, Gould was diagnosed with
peritoneal mesothelioma, a highly deadly form of cancer affecting the
abdominal lining and frequently found in people who have been exposed to
asbestos. After a difficult two-year recovery, Gould published a column for
Discover magazine, titled "The Median Isn't the Message," which discusses his reaction to discovering that
mesothelioma patients had a
median lifespan of only eight months after diagnosis. He then describes the true significance behind this number, and his relief upon realizing that
statistical averages are just useful abstractions, and don't encompass the full range of variation. The
median is the halfway point, which means that 50% of patients will die before 8 months, but the other half will live longer, potentially much longer. He then needed to find out where his personal characteristics placed him within this range. Considering the cancer was caught early, the fact he was young, optimistic, and had the best treatments available, Gould figured that he should be in the favorable half of the upper statistical range. After an experimental treatment of
radiation,
chemotherapy, and
surgery, Gould made a full recovery, and his column became a source of comfort for many cancer patients.
Gould was also an advocate for
medical marijuana. During this bout with cancer, he smoked the illegal drug to alleviate the nausea associated with his medical treatments. According to Gould, his use of
marijuana had a "most important effect" on his eventual recovery. In 1998 he testified in the case of
Jim Wakeford, a Canadian medical-marijuana user and activist.
His scientific essays for
Natural History frequently refer to his nonscientific interests and pastimes. As a boy, he collected
baseball cards and was a huge
baseball fan throughout his life. As an adult he was fond of
science fiction movies, but lamented that so many of them were bad, not just in their science, but in their
storytelling. He sang in a
madrigal choir and was a great aficionado of
Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. He collected
rare books and old
textbooks. He traveled often to
Europe, usually mixing business with pleasure, and spoke French and German. He admired
Renaissance architecture. When discussing the
Judeo-Christian tradition, he usually referred to it simply as "Moses." He sometimes alluded ruefully to his tendency to put on weight.
Gould died on
May 20 2002 from a
metastatic adenocarcinoma of the lung, a form of
cancer which had spread to his brain. This cancer was unrelated to his abdominal cancer, from which he'd fully recovered twenty years earlier. He died in his home "in a bed set up in the library of his
SoHo loft, surrounded by his wife Rhonda, his mother Eleanor, and the many books he loved."
Scientific career
Gould began his higher education at
Antioch College, graduating with an undergraduate degree in
geology in 1963. During this time, he also studied abroad at the
University of Leeds in the
United Kingdom. After completing his graduate work at
Columbia University in 1967 under the guidance of
Norman Newell, he was immediately hired by
Harvard University where he worked until the end of his life (1967-2002). In 1973, Harvard promoted him to Professor of Geology and
Curator of
Invertebrate Paleontology at the institution's
Museum of Comparative Zoology, and in 1982, Harvard awarded him with the title of
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology. In 1983, he was awarded fellowship into the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he later served as president (1999-2001). The AAAS news release cited his "numerous contributions to both scientific progress and the public understanding of science." He also served as president of the Paleontological Society (1985-1986) and the Society for the Study of Evolution (1990-1991). In 1989, Gould was elected into the body of the
National Academy of Sciences. Through 1996-2002 Gould was
Vincent Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at
New York University.
Punctuated equilibrium
Early in his career, Gould and
Niles Eldredge developed the theory of
punctuated equilibrium, in which evolutionary change occurs relatively rapidly, as compared to longer periods of relative evolutionary stability. According to Gould, punctuated equilibrium revised a key pillar "in the central logic of
Darwinian theory." it merely modified
neo-Darwinism in a manner that was fully compatible with what had been known before. Others however emphasized its theoretical novelty, and argued that evolutionary stasis had been "unexpected by most evolutionary biologists" and "had a major impact on paleontology and evolutionary biology." Some critics of the theory referred to punctuated equilibrium as "evolution by jerks," a play on words Gould himself joked about.
Evolutionary developmental biology
Gould contributed to
evolutionary developmental biology, describing "terminal addition," in which an
organism evolves a last stage of individual development by shortening the earlier stages.
Selectionism and sociobiology
Gould championed biological constraints as well as other non-selectionist forces in evolution. In particular, he considered higher functions of the
human brain to be the byproduct of
natural selection and not its selected result. Thus understanding undermines an essential premise of human
sociobiology and
evolutionary psychology.
Against "Sociobiology"
In 1975,
E. O. Wilson introduced an analysis of human behavior based on a sociobiological construct. In response, Gould, Richard Lewontin, and others from the
Boston area wrote the subsequently well referenced letter to the
New York Review of Books "Against 'Sociobiology'" in opposition to this theory, particularly sociobiology's hegemonic support of the notion of a "deterministic view of human society and human action."
Gould opposed sociobiology as applied to humans and its descendant evolutionary psychology. Criticizing a genetic explanation for human behaviors, Gould championed the vision of nearly all humans born with the capacity to assume almost any identity, as shaped by social rather than biological forces.
Spandrels and the Panglossian Paradigm
With
Richard Lewontin, Gould wrote an influential 1979 paper entitled "The Spandrels of
San Marco and the
Panglossian
Paradigm," which introduced the architectural term "
spandrel" into evolutionary biology.
A spandrel is the space that exists between arches, as seen particularly in
gothic churches. When visiting
Venice, Gould noted that the spandrels of the San Marco
cathedral, while quite beautiful, were not a space that was planned by the architect, but rather coincidentally resulted from what the architects deliberately designed—the arches. Gould and Lewontin thus defined "spandrels" in evolutionary biology to mean a feature of an organism that arises as a necessary side consequence of other features, but which isn't built directly, piece by piece, as a result of being favored by natural selection. Examples include the "masculinized genitalia in female hyenas, exaptive use of an umbilicus as a brooding chamber by snails, the shoulder hump of the giant Irish deer, and several key features of human mentality."
In Voltaire's
Candide, Dr.
Pangloss is a clueless
scholar who, despite the evidence, says that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds." Gould and Lewontin asserted that it's "Panglossian" for evolutionary biologists to view all biological traits as things that had been naturally selected for specifically. Gould and Lewontin argued that some traits were coincidental "spandrels." The relative frequency of spandrels, so defined, versus adaptive features in nature, remains a controversial topic in
evolutionary biology.
Land snails
Most of Gould's empirical research pertained to land snails. He focused his early work on the
Bermudian genus
Poecilozonites, while his later work concentrated on the
West Indian genus
Cerion. According to Gould "
Cerion is the land snail of maximal diversity in form throughout the entire world. There are 600 described species of this single genus. In fact, they're not really species, they all interbreed, but the names exist to express a real phenomenon which is this incredible morphological diversity. Some are shaped like golf balls, some are shaped like pencils.…Now my main subject is the evolution of form, and the problem of how it's that you can get this diversity amid so little genetic difference, so far as we can tell, is a very interesting one. And if we could solve this we'd learn something general about the evolution of form."
Influence
Gould is also one of the most highly cited scientists in the field of evolutionary theory. His 1979 "spandrels" paper has been cited more than 1,600 times. In
Palaeobiology—the flagship journal of his own speciality—only
Charles Darwin and
G.G. Simpson have been cited more often. Gould was also a considerably respected historian of science. Historian
Ronald Numbers has been quoted as saying: "I can't say much about Gould's strengths as a scientist, but for a long time I've regarded him as the second most influential historian of science (next to
Thomas Kuhn)."
The Structure of evolutionary theory
Shortly before his death, Gould published a long treatise recapitulating his version of modern evolutionary theory:
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002).
As a public figure
Gould became widely known through his popular science essays in
Natural History magazine and his
best-selling books on
evolution. Many of his essays were reprinted in collected volumes, such as
Ever Since Darwin and
The Panda's Thumb, while his popular treatises included books such as
The Mismeasure of Man,
Wonderful Life and .
A passionate advocate of evolutionary theory, Gould wrote prolifically on the subject, trying to communicate his understanding of contemporary evolutionary biology to a wide audience. A recurring theme in his writings is the history and development of evolutionary, and pre-evolutionary,
thought. He was also an enthusiastic
baseball fan and made frequent references to the sport in his essays.
Although a proud Darwinist, his emphasis was less
gradualist and
reductionist than most
neo-Darwinists. He fiercely opposed many aspects of
sociobiology and its intellectual descendant
evolutionary psychology. He devoted considerable time to fighting against
creationism (and the related constructs
Creation science and
Intelligent design). Most notably, Gould provided expert testimony against the equal-time creationism law in
McLean v. Arkansas. Gould later developed the term "Non-Overlapping Magisteria" (NOMA) to describe how, in his view, science and religion couldn't comment on each other's realm. Gould went on to develop this idea in some detail, particularly in the books
Rocks of Ages (1999) and
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox (2003). In a 1982 essay for
Natural History Gould wrote:
A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism spawned the
National Center for Science Education's 'anti-petition',
Project Steve, which is named in Gould's honor.
Gould also became a noted public face of science, often appearing on
television. He once voiced a cartoon version of himself on the season nine
Simpsons episode
Lisa the Skeptic, in which Lisa finds a skeleton that many people think is that of an angel that predicts the end of the world, but ends up being part of a marketing ploy for a new mall. The show paid tribute to Gould after his death, dedicating the season 13 finale "
Papa's Got a Brand New Badge" to his memory.
Gould was also featured prominently as a guest in
Ken Burns' PBS documentary
Baseball,
PBS's Evolution series,
CNN's Crossfire,
NBC's The Today Show, and was a guest in all seven episodes of the Dutch '90s talkshow-series "Een Schitterend Ongeluk", or in English, "A Marvellous Accident." He was also on the Board of Advisers to the influential
Children's Television Workshop television show,
3-2-1 Contact, where he made frequent guest appearances.
Controversies
Gould received many accolades for his scholarly work and popular expositions of natural history, but wasn't immune from criticism by those in the biological community who felt his public presentations were, for various reasons, out of step with mainstream evolutionary theory. The public debates between Gould's proponents and detractors have been so quarrelsome that they've been dubbed "The Darwin Wars" by several commentators.
John Maynard Smith, an eminent British evolutionary biologist, was among Gould's strongest critics. Maynard Smith thought that Gould misjudged the vital role of adaptation in biology, and was also critical of Gould's acceptance of
species selection as a major component of biological evolution. In a review of
Daniel Dennett's book
Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Maynard Smith wrote that Gould "is giving non-biologists a largely false picture of the state of evolutionary theory." But Maynard Smith hasn't been consistently negative, writing in a review of
The Panda's Thumb that "Stephen Gould is the best writer of popular science now active. . . . Often he infuriates me, but I hope he'll go right on writing essays like these." Maynard Smith was also among those who welcomed Gould's reinvigoration of evolutionary paleontology. Gould himself corrected some of these misinterpretations and distortions of his writings in later works..
Opposition to sociobiology and evolutionary psychology
Gould also had a long-running public feud with
E. O. Wilson and other evolutionary biologists over
human sociobiology and its descendant
evolutionary psychology, which Gould, Lewontin, and Maynard Smith opposed, but which
Richard Dawkins,
Daniel Dennett, and
Steven Pinker advocated. Gould and Dawkins also disagreed over the importance of
gene selection in evolution. Dawkins argued that evolution is best understood as competition among genes (or replicators), while Gould advocated the importance of multi-level competition, including selection amongst
genes,
cell lineages,
organisms,
demes,
species, and
clades. Criticism of Gould can be found in chapter 9 of Dawkins'
The Blind Watchmaker and chapter 10 of Dennett's
Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Dennett's criticism has tended to be harsher, while Dawkins praises Gould in evolutionary topics other than those of contention. Pinker accuses Gould,
Lewontin and other opponents of evolutionary psychology of being "radical scientists," whose stance on human nature is influenced by politics rather than science. Gould contended that sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists are often heavily influenced, perhaps unconsciously, by their own prejudices and interests. He wrote:
Cambrian fauna
Gould's interpretation of the
Cambrian Burgess Shale fossils in his book
Wonderful Life emphasized the striking morphological disparity (or "weirdness") of the Burgess Shale fauna, and the role of chance in determining which members of this fauna survived and flourished. He used the Cambrian fauna as an example of the role of
contingency in the broader pattern of evolution.
Gould's view was criticized by
Simon Conway Morris in his 1998 book
The Crucible Of Creation. Conway Morris stressed those members of the Cambrian fauna that resemble modern taxa. He also promoted
convergent evolution as a mechanism producing similar forms to similar environmental circumstances, and argued in a subsequent book that the appearance of human-like animals is likely. Paleontologists
Derek Briggs and
Richard Fortey have also argued that much of the Cambrian fauna may be regarded as
stem groups of living taxa, though this is still a subject of intense research and debate, and the relationship of many Cambrian taxa to modern phyla hasn't been established in the eyes of many palaeontologists.
Paleontologist
Richard Fortey noted that prior to the release of
Wonderful Life, Conway Morris shared many of Gould's sentiments and views. It was only after publication of
Wonderful Life that Conway Morris revised his interpretation and adopted a more
progressive stance towards the history of life..
Mismeasure of Man
Stephen Jay Gould was also the author of
The Mismeasure of Man (1981), a
history and
skeptical inquiry of
psychometrics and
intelligence testing. Gould investigated nineteenth century
craniometry, as well as modern-day
psychological testing, and claimed that they developed from an unfounded faith in
biological determinism. It was reprinted in 1996 with the addition of a new foreword, plus a review and critique of
The Bell Curve.
The Mismeasure of Man has generated perhaps the greatest controversy of all of Gould's books, and has received both widespread praise (by
skeptics) and extensive criticism (by certain
psychologists), including claims of misrepresentation by some scientists.
Nonoverlapping Magisteria (NOMA)
In his book
Rocks of Ages (1999), Gould put forward what he described as "a blessedly simple and entirely conventional resolution to ... the supposed conflict between science and religion." He defines the term
magisterium as "a domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution"
Books
Further Information
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