Customer Reviews

The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance (Belknap Press)

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Ernst Mayr's comprehensive history of biological thought is nothing less than the story of man's discovery of his own place in nature. Mayr goes back centuries in this fascinating detective story of man's attempt to make sense of all the similarities and all the diversity of organic life, as well as the changes in life forms and the makeup of the earth as found in the geological record. Mankind's attempts to understand life forms through their categorization is fully discussed. Mayr is exceptionally good in his lengthy review of evolutionary thought and brings it up to date throught the century following Darwin. He ends by dealing with the problem of inheritance and the development of genetic theory which is brought up through the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA. Throughout the work Mayr retains a focus on the place of biological thought in the history of science. He clearly shows how historians and philosophers of science have made serious errors by assuming that physics and mathematics present the perfect models for the "scientific method." He illustrates how biological understanding does not often fit those paradigms. A real strength of his book is how he develops the "conceptual" universe of thinkers and researchers as they struggled with the problems posed by biological diversity and change. "In biological science," he says, "our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by the discovery of new facts." Pertinent here is what he refers to as the "strait jacket of Plato's essentialism" that influenced thinking right into the 20th century. He also demonstrates why it was so important that biologists began to ask "why?" instead of simply "how?" One particular hi-lite of Mayr's book is his "rehabilitation" of the reputation of Jean Baptiste Lamarck who is so often disparaged in texts which use him as "the" example of all that was wrong with biological thinking prior to Darwin. Mayr clearly shows the power of Lamarck's thought and reveals that he, more than anyone, "discovered the Achilles heel of natural theology" with his insight that "a species must likewise change forever in order to remain in harmonious balance with the environment." This book is not a quick read as it is packed with information. But it is a fascinating detective story that should be seen as required reading for any educated individual. It is often hard to put it down as one is constantly looking forward to seeing how men solved the various problems of biological change and the nature of organic life.

Professional biologists, particularly those who have received their graduate trainining in recent years like myself, tend to ignore the philosophical basis of theoretical systems and working hypothesis we use in our work, be it research or teaching, everyday. There are several different and apparently contradictory systems to explain the mechanisms of evolution but, nonetheless, the most successful and the basis of all present possible explanations is the Neo-Darwinian synthesis, which integrated Charles Darwin's hypothesis with modern research techniques and methods, opening the path to mechanistic explanations and eventually, yes, reductionism, validating organismal biology as a "hard core" science. Dr. Mayr was one of those biologists who laid the basis for the Neo-Darwinian synthesis. In this book, he traces back the concept of organism, species, diversity, inheritance and evolution to the early greek philosophers and exposes the changes of the philosophic! ! al and conceptual basis of evolutionary theories to our days.

Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was an institution in the science of biology. Around long enough to contribute significantly to the development of synthetic theory, Mayr made at least some of the history he reports on in his monumental "The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance." While any book of this scope is bound to have some blank spots, this is by far the most comprehensive history of biological thought ever published and it is fitting that it should get as much praise as it has.

Mayr had his weak points (as all people do), but they were certainly not in depth of knowledge. Starting as an ornithologist (he could identify the local birds around his home in Germany by the time he was ten) he built a solid reputation as an evolutionary biologist. He early on (correctly, I believe) took the view that the "nature-nurture" argument was not valid, as genes and environment can never be separated. He is also the author of numerous quotable statements on the scientific method, biology and evolutionary thought, such as "...most scientific problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic," a statement he backs up in this huge tome.

Indeed, Mayr is right; to understand scientific problems one needs to understand the history of thought involved. For example, Mayr first proposed punctuated equilibrium, as noted by S. J. Gould and Niles Eldredge, and defined much of the evolutionary landscape of speciation. Without the knowledge of Mayr's contribution and contributions made by other biological giants, starting with Darwin and going on through Sewell Wright, George Gaylord Simpson, the Huxleys, Dobzhansky, George Williams and many others, the rich development of biological thought is almost indecipherable. In essence, we really need to know how a particular idea was derived in order to understand its significance (It was not until I was taught the significance of the history behind cell theory that I really appreciated it!) This is how biology should be taught and this is a good book with which to start. I recommend it highly.

This is an absolutely superb history of biological thought. If you want to know what Aristotle thought, the details about van Leuvenhook as he turned his crude microscope on a drop of water (revealing the existence of teeming microorganisms), and the neo-darwinian synthesis (of Darwin and Mendelian genetics), this is your book. It is unfailingly accurate, beautifully written, and laid out so that it is easy to find what you want at the moment you need it. I have used this as a reference for years when I needed just the right fact or idea in some article or review. It is simply first rate, but it is a book to use and apply more than one to read straight through. Finally, Maye is one of the great biologists of the 20C, a leader in the development of neo-Darwinism, which is a special treat to the reader.

Recommended. Its excellence will stand the test of time.

I read this book 20 years ago and I still remember it. It is one of the best works of non-fiction I have ever read. Mayr makes clear the fundamental difference between the physical sciences and the biological sciences, and provides an outstanding introduction (more than an introduction) to the history of biological thought. Read Darwin, read Gould, but read Mayr first.

There is history in biological thought and not only an accumulation of knowledge as it is commonly assumed. Knowledge is an interpretation of facts and is dependent on concepts about the world or even the process of cognition. This book deals with the part of dependency on concepts about the world which were used to research and explain the found data. For me it was an eye-opener because in school we learned, that there is just one eternal biology about wich one cannot argue. After genetics we may no more be able to argue, but because of other reasons:-)

While Mayr took on a monumental task in researching the history of ideas in 3 important areas of biology, this book feels limited. The most glaring weakness I found is the heavy Eurocentrism displayed throughout. It gives no mention to the large contribution made by scientists in Asia to many of the issues it addresses. The book also feels highly repetitive in some areas, explaining the same concepts every few pages at times. I feel that it would have been better served as a series of books, each one more detailed in the branch of biology with which it is concerned.