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Misquoted Person

Stephen Jay Gould

Source

• Johnson, Phillip E., 1993. Darwin on Trial, 2nd ed. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, p. 11

Original Source

• Gould, S.J. 1980. Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging? Paleobiology 6: 119-130. (not verified)

Misquote

"Gould wrote that, although he had been "beguiled" by the unifying power of the Darwinist synthesis when he studied it as a graduate student in the 1960s, the weight of the evidence had driven him to the reluctant conclusion that the synthesis, "as a general proposition, is effectively dead, despite its persistence as textbook orthodoxy.""

Original quote

"I well remember how the synthetic theory beguiled me with its unifying power when I was a graduate student in the mid-1960's. Since then I have been watching it slowly unravel as a universal description of evolution. The molecular assault came first, followed quickly by renewed attention to unorthodox theories of speciation and by challenges at the level of macroevolution itself. I have been reluctant to admit it-- since beguiling is often forever-- but if Mayr's characterization of the synthetic theory is accurate, then that theory, as a general proposition, is effectively dead, despite its persistence as textbook orthodoxy."

Ernst Mayr's characterization Gould is talking about:

• "The proponents of the synthetic theory maintain that all evolution is due to the accumulation of small genetic changes, guided by natural selection, and that transspecific evolution is nothing but an extrapolation and magnification of the events that take place within populations and species."

Real Meaning

The thing Gould calls "effectively dead" is Mayr's specific formulation of the synthetic theory - namely the concept that there are no emergent effects. Mayr, and later Eldredge and Gould, proposed such an emergent effect - Eldredge and Gould called it punctuated equilibria. Punctuated equilibria are one effect of the synthetic theory which is not obvious to the naïve reader but does not invalidate the synthetic theory. Gould's exaggerated rhetorics is just PR for his own idea.

Consider this analogy:

Punctuated equilibria is to the synthetic theory as chaos theory is to Newtonian mechanics - Newtonian mechanics provides the equations and chaos theory shows that there are unexpected solutions to them. This does not invalidate Newtonian mechanics. Now suppose that someone (analogously to Ernst Mayr) would have said:

"The proponents of Newtonian mechanics maintain that from the underlying equations, the solutions can be computed accurately with pencil and paper."

Then it would be justified for a Gould-analog chaos physicist to say: "If that's true, then Newtonian mechanics is dead." But it wouldn't be justified for an anti-physics crackpot to quote him as saying "Newtonian mechanics is dead." For Newtonian mechanics has been expanded, and its basic assumptions are untouched.

External Links

• Spitzer, Brian, 2002. The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth? Why Phillip Johnson's Darwin on Trial and the "Intelligent Design" movement are neither science--nor Christian [1]