This book presents 18 essays grouped by five themes or general topics: Evolutionary Theory, Time and Geology, Biological Determinism, Four Biologists, and In Praise of Reason. Although most of the essays critique individual books, a few essays examine two or more books that treat similar or contrasting ideas. In this way, Gould can discuss ideas in a broader context than that proposed in a single book.
In essay two, for example, titled "Cardboard Darwism," Gould attacks the science of human sociobiology, especially in the form proposed by Edward O. Wilson. Gould is especially critical of the reductionist tendency of scientists in this specialty to seek a genetic explanation for every human behavior. He argues that a history of culture may be a more appropriate method of explaining particular human behaviors, like religion. He criticizes the adaptationist tendency to find a Darwinian explanation for every feature and structure of an organism (like wings or feathers on birds). He denounces especially a logical error called the anthropic principal, that is, "that since human life fits so intricately well into a universe run by nature's laws (current utility), these laws must have arisen with our later appearance in mind (historical origin)." (p. 48) But of course, nature is an unconscious thing and cannot look forward or make plans. In this essay, Gould critiques at least ten different books while focusing on the three he is reviewing here.
Essay 6 reviews "Basin and Range" by John McPhee. The essay, titled "Deep Time and Ceaseless Motion," looks at how McPhee explains the revolution in geology that has been brought about by the theory of plate tectonics. "Plate tectonics has given us a unified theory for the behavior and history of the earth as a whole," (p. 95) Gould writes. Perhaps my favorite quote from McPhee's book is this one: "If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone." (p. 98)
Again and again in this book, Gould returns to the ideas that drive him passionately: that it is wrong to view evolution as a ladder, lower beings giving way to higher beings, nature making progress in its creations. Evolution, he reminds us repeatedly, is not a ladder, but a bush. There is no progress, just changing creatures adapting to changing environments, while those who fail to adapt become extinct. He quotes Darwin's aphorism: "never say higher or lower." (p. 66) Another theme is that natural selection is not a theory of randomness---no matter how often it is characterized as such by its enemies---instead, "natural selection, the agent of change, is a conventional deterministic process that builds adaptation by preserving favorable variants." (p. 232)
I take great pleasure in reading and rereading these essays by Stephen Jay Gould. Even when he is at his most caustic, as when he is attacking the proponents of IQ testing like Arthur R. Jensen ("Jensen's Last Stand," essay 8) or Jeremy Rifkin's anti-scientific attack on genetic engineering ("Integrity and Mr. Rifkin," essay 17), he does not stoop to cheapshots or name-calling. One can sense his passionate opposition to the ideas these men are proposing, yet still Gould expends his energies in methodically piling up the evidence to support his critiques of faulty reasoning and bad science.
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