Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

List Price: $48.00 Details

Save: $4.00 (8%)

FREE Returns

FREE delivery Sunday, May 28

Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 25. Order within 13 hrs 52 mins

Select delivery location

Only 6 left in stock (more on the way)

[{"displayPrice":"$44.00","priceAmount":44.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"44","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"0K%2FdSAYqyIqmzywAUmkp%2FofwyYWS1tVz%2BDAMglg83WAGMve%2F%2FS5RgN4femXZbJpsQmNE010h%2BZM%2BsdDzHQ2sC2stCasyZMJfzDKX%2FSo9Uwmd9spTi3nVm%2Bk%2FIL%2BlagwQHq7bOukAbY4%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$27.52","priceAmount":27.52,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"27","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"52","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"0K%2FdSAYqyIqmzywAUmkp%2FofwyYWS1tVzytoN%2B%2BlAcqETt6igBFnTca9iXb080abbJ64JlZgfWAafvhqsWb0DiOuiBCwfYOkf1xE1neFQMA0TG8liZrJt%2B1hpxOaZVMYoQaR%2BrBrnmd%2BxU%2FDrLPIS8HW7bN2tBMu7RHZ4l%2Fs0xZKBvvNDG1XK5OLrzp3m3lTE","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$44.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 30

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by RummageTX

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$39.95
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Noble_Readers

Added

Not added

$43.95
& FREE Shipping. Details

Sold by: Take-N-Go

Added

Not added

$59.88
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: TheWorldShopUSA

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Stephen Jay Gould

Ontogeny and Phylogeny Reprint Edition

by Stephen Jay Gould (Author)

4.8 33 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$36.96

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$30.00

—

$12.55

Paperback

"Please retry"

$44.00

$39.95

$2.81

Kindle
$36.96 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
$30.00

11 Used from $12.55
Paperback
$27.52 - $44.00

42 Used from $2.81 18 New from $39.95 1 Collectible from $53.85

Purchase options and add-ons

“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. The theory of recapitulation, Gould argues, finally collapsed not from the weight of contrary data, but because the rise of Mendelian genetics rendered it untenable.

Turning to modern concepts, Gould demonstrates that, even though the whole subject of parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny fell into disrepute, it is still one of the great themes of evolutionary biology. Heterochrony―changes in developmental timing, producing parallels between ontogeny and phylogeny―is shown to be crucial to an understanding of gene regulation, the key to any rapprochement between molecular and evolutionary biology. Gould argues that the primary evolutionary value of heterochrony may lie in immediate ecological advantages for slow or rapid maturation, rather than in long-term changes of form, as all previous theories proclaimed.

Neoteny―the opposite of recapitulation―is shown to be the most important determinant of human evolution. We have evolved by retaining the juvenile characters of our ancestors and have achieved both behavioral flexibility and our characteristic morphology thereby (large brains by prolonged retention of rapid fetal growth rates, for example).

Gould concludes that “there may be nothing new under the sun, but permutation of the old within complex systems can do wonders. As biologists, we deal directly with the kind of material complexity that confers an unbounded potential upon simple, continuous changes in underlying processes. This is the chief joy of our science.”

ISBN-10

0674639413
ISBN-13

978-0674639416
Edition

Reprint
Publisher

Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
Publication date

January 17, 1985
Language

English
Dimensions

6.14 x 1.04 x 9.21 inches
Print length

520 pages
See all details

Bought Together

Frequently bought together

$44.00

Get it as soon as Sunday, May 28

Only 6 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History

$15.29

Get it as soon as Sunday, May 28

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time (The Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures)

$29.88

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by The Art of Savings and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Highest ratedin this set of productsThis item:
Stephen Jay Gould
33
Paperback
$44.00
Lowest Pricein this set of products
Stephen Jay Gould
458
Paperback
$12.29
Most purchasedin this set of products
Stephen Jay Gould
481
Paperback
$16.95
Stephen Jay Gould
30
Paperback
$29.88
Stephen Jay Gould
159
Paperback
$15.29
Stephen Jay Gould
34
Hardcover
$46.50
Stephen Jay Gould
108
Hardcover
$45.66

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In Gould’s…new book…Ontogeny and Phylogeny, a scholarly study of the theory of recapitulation, he not only explains scientific theory but comments on science itself, with clarity and wit, simultaneously entertaining and teaching… [This] is a rich book.”―James Gorman, New York Times Book Review

“Steven Jay Gould has given us a superb analysis of the use of ontogenetic analogy, the controversies over ontogeny and phylogeny, and the classification of the different processes observable in comparing different ontogenies. His massive book (in each chapter of which there is as much material as in whole books by other writers) is both a historical exposition of the whole subject of ontogeny and phylogeny, and…a fascinating attempt at a functional interpretation of those phylogenetic alterations that involve changes of timing developmental processes in related organisms.”―A. J. Cain, Nature

“This [is a] fat, handsome book crammed with provocative ideas… Ontogeny and Phylogeny is an important and thoughtful book which will be a valuable source of ideas and controversies for anyone interested in evolutionary or developmental biology.”―Matt Cartmill, Science

“It is rare indeed to read a new book and recognize it for a classic… Gould has given biologists a new way to see the organisms they study. The result is a major achievement.”―S. Rachootin, American Scientist

“Gould’s book―pervaded, I should say, with an erudition and felicity of style that make it a delight to read―is a radical work in every sense… It returns one’s attention to the roots of our science―the questions about the great pageant of evolution, the marvelous diversity of form that our theory is meant to explain.”―D. Futuyma, Quarterly Review of Biology

“A distinguished and pioneering work.”―Ernst Mayr

From the Back Cover

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 appearance among the pre-Socratics to its demise in the early twentieth century.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press; Reprint edition (January 17, 1985)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 520 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674639413
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674639416
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.42 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 1.04 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #518,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #86 in Developmental Biology (Books)
- #294 in Biology (Books)
- #13,639 in Classic Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.8 33 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stephen Jay Gould

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5

33 global ratings

5 star		91%
4 star		4%
3 star		2%
2 star		2%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Stanley R. Fleming

Used Ontogeny and Phylogeny

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 30, 2009

Verified Purchase

The book purchased was a used copy of Stephen Gould's "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" in paperback. The book was no surprise since I knew what it was. Condition was as advertised, I think, but was excellent at any rate. Delivery was within a reasonable time. So this was a very satisfactory transaction from my point of view, excellent book for a reasonable price within a sensible time period. What else to expect?

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

One of the best of Dr. Gould's books, and there are many. Good science very well explained.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Sabri Gokmen

Good copy

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 28, 2013

Verified Purchase

Excellent copy and shipped fast. This is one of the books that I have been waiting to read. clean book.

Helpful

Steve Reina

The rise and fall of a scientific idea

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 14, 2007

"Ontogeny recapitulates philogeny" is the largely defunct theory that as a fetus grows it reprises the collected earlier adult states of its evolutionary forebears.

And this book is not so much about that theory as it is about the history of how the theory was proposed, its influence on other learning and the process of its demise.

In this way, this book is properly bracketed with Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate in its discussion of the all too not empiracal process of empiracal reasoning. Its also reminiscent of Percival Lowell's assertion that canals existed on Mars because just as Lowell largely saw what he was predisposed to see early biologists like those mentioned in this work were themselves predisposed to see what they were predisposed to see.

Yes, the theory rose and fell but perhaps Gould's most telling discussion was in his treatment of how the theory came to misused for educational and political purposes. If the fetus recapitulated its evolutionary past, then perhaps children in prominent countries capitulated in their behavior the cultures of less prominent countries. And so, child's play was just a stage reminiscent of aboriginal social interaction and a child's make believe world was their real life religion.

Deep stuff.

What Gould could have added were the other abuses made on the still existent theory of Darwinian evolution wherein turn of the century aristocrats fancied themselves the socially fittest of the species. Again, we have an example of science placed at the easy service of prejudice.

However, and this is where Gould's discussion gives cause for hope, being a scientific theory it fell because it failed to pass muster with scientific techniques of testing.

And in this way, Gould's book is not so much about the passing of a scientific idea as it is about the use of the technique of empiracal testing and not predisposition to determine truth.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tom L. Forest

Deeply knowledgeable, thoughtful, and philosophical

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2001

This is one of the three most influential books I've read in the last 20 years.
"The world was a better place when I was young," "Kids today are worse than they were 20 years ago," are two of the more egregious examples I hear of people confusing ontogeny (development of an individual) with phylogeny (development of a type or collective). The world has always been a complicated and widely mixed placed. It is far more likely for an individual's perceptions to change in the course of a lifetime than the world that we perceive.
Gould's essays (and books collecting them) are pleasant bits of fluff that entertainingly (and sneakily) deliver well-informed and timely bits of science. "Ontogeny and Philogeny" goes the next level down, using interesting bits of (mostly) science to deliver well-informed and timely bits of philosophy.
I bought this book because I was curious about the relationship between ontogeny and philogeny. "Does ontogeny recapitulate phylogeny?" was on my mind. No, says Gould. Better, he describes what that relationship is. Along the way, he explains how humans are differentiated from other species (a topic well expanded by Jared Diamond in "The Third Chimpanzee").
Gould starts with the history of science (Lamarck, Ernst Haeckel); philosophy (Anaximander, Aristotle); and psychology (Cesare Lombroso; Freud). He starts by showing the history of the perceived relationship between phylogeny and ontogeny. The illustrative bits of science follow as he discusses heterochrony and paedomophosis, showing how phylogeny relates to ontogeny, which I will grossly oversimplify: ontogeny selectively draws from phylogeny with occasional complete departures that may or may not be helpful (which is also true of the retained bits of phylogeny). The past may be selectively retained, but retaining one part does not necessitate the retention of all parts or even the relationship between the retained parts. Gould takes 409 carefully reasoned and well-written pages to get there. It's worth the trip.

29 people found this helpful

Helpful

Rivkah Maccaby

ontology & phrenology

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 28, 2001

Stephen Jay Gould's brilliance is evident as always in his ability to make the esoterics of great science available to people who have not thoroughly studied his field. He doesn't dumb it down, nor remove such huge slices that we are fools walking that dangerous tightrope of a little knowledge. Equal evidence of his genius is his broad base of real knowledge. He knows linguistics, for example; he would recognize that he does not know as much as Noam Chomsky, but he knows a great deal more than the typical lay person.
He uses this knowledge at the beginning of this book to construct a carnival of phrenology and psychoanalysis that gives a social context to his later discussion of ontogeny and phylogeny. Looking at the subject of the title outside of this context would make a reader feel awfully disconnected from the people who believed this. It helps to rememeber that history is the story of a species and its learning process.
One hundred years from now, people may know things that make them skake their heads at our use of protease inhibitors in treating AIDS, CD-ROM's in computer operations, or at the fact that only autistic kids, and not even all of them used weighted vests to develope proprioceptive skills.
The book made me feel superior, and at the same time humbled. No single person is capable of what our species can do as a whole.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

Manuel Rodriguez Gonzalez

Wonderfull book

Reviewed in Spain 🇪🇸 on April 30, 2017

Verified Purchase

Great book full of science and delightful comments. It is not just a boring hard book but a funny one. Also the edition is marvelous. A book to have

Horacio Raul Perez Garcia

Extraordinario

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on May 7, 2022

Verified Purchase

Muito interessante do ponto de vista de análise do processo evolutivo

Translate review to English

Kari Saarvola, s.c.

Late Gould has stayed my favorite for years

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Basic books; must for every biologist. I used it in my studies about neandertals: the speciation problem. Late Gould has stayed my favorite for years. He has so clear thoughts !!!

Ivan

incroyable

Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on January 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

C'est un des monuments de Gould. Les recherches historiques et les idées scientifiques sont incroyables. Mais attention, ce n'est pas un des nombreux livres géniaux de vulgarisation que Gould a écrit. Ce livre est réservé à un public averti.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust