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What Evolution Is (Science Masters Series) Paperback – October 11, 2002

by Ernst Mayr (Author)

161

Part of: Science Masters (14 books)

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At once a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader, What Evolution Is poses the questions at the heart of evolutionary theory and considers how our improved understanding of evolution has affected the viewpoints and values of modern man. Science Masters Series

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Science Masters
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336 pages
Language

English
Publication date

October 11, 2002
Dimensions

5 x 0.85 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0465044263
ISBN-13

978-0465044269
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Clear, comprehensive, and very informative...This significant contribution to science will be of enormous value to anyone interested in evolution." -- Library Journal

"Elegant prose and the sheer pleasure of so many enthralling facts...studying the fossil record has rarely been so enthralling." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[Ernst Mayr is] a writer of extraordinary insight and clarity." -- Stephen Jay Gould

About the Author

Ernst Mayr was the leading evolutionary biologist of the 20th century. He was Professor Emeritus at the Zoology Department of Harvard University and for twenty-three years served as Curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He died in February 2005 in Massachusetts.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (October 11, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0465044263
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0465044269
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.85 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #574,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #93 in Developmental Biology (Books)
- #194 in Scientific Reference
- #1,919 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

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4.4 out of 5

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Catie G-A

Worthwhile read

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024

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I got this to go along with the evolution class I'm taking and it matches the class format and really provides a deeper understanding and background for the topics.

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D. S. Heersink

Best Summary of Darwinianism

Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2005

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Warning: This book uses technical language for technical thought. Indeed, it one of its singular strengths, but this excellent overview may not be for beginners.

We are in the midst of the second-most important paradigm shift in history (heliocentrism being the first), and most of us only have an inkling of it. It began in 1959 with Darwin's "Origin of the Species" followed by "Descent of Man." Because (1) its theories - plural - undermined some of our most precious traditions, (2) time was required to harness incontrovertible proof, and (3) biblical fundamentalism has assaulted it from every angle, the paradigm shift itself has been a gradual process (itself an evolutionary fact). But now that genetics, embryology, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, etc. have repeatedly demonstrated the fact of evolution, opposition and resistance is worse than useless and futile, it's counter-productive.

But, what is evolution (aka, Darwinism, Modern Synthesis)? Most us know it is about gradual development of the immense diversity of "life," speciation, survival of the fittest, natural selection, adaptedness, struggle for existence, and similar themes. All of which is true, but all of which is far from all that is true. Evolution requires rethinking and new language, not just adding new ideas to our knowledge base, but in many cases replacing archaic language and ideas. "Essences" must be replaced by "populations," the Great Chain of Being is incoherent as well as untrue, ditto the scala naturae, teleology and orthogenesis, "higher" versus "lower" animals, "complexity" as superior to "simplicity," differences in kind (mostly in degree), etc. plus an entirely different language to describe the biosphere, e.g., genotype, phenotype, demes, niches, allopatric, sympatric, genetic "flow" versus "drift," etc. Both language and the thoughts it represents have shifted.

Many writers of popular science, most notably Matt Ridley, have done a great job in making evolution and its implications accessible to a wide audience. Because of these achievements, Mayr's book becomes all the more necessary and indispensable: We need a scientist's textbook for laity that provides acquaintance with the language science itself uses (with a necessary glossary provided) to explain biological phenomena and their relation to evolution in one of the most significant paradigm shifts in human history. Moreover, evolution's implications need to be stressed without ambiguity and without an ulterior agenda. Finally, because so many sub-disciplines of biology were needed in the 80 years after Darwin to cohere the architecture from biology, embryology, genetics, molecular biology, paleontology, etc. few books encompass them all. Mayr's does, pointing out past errors and identifying unresolved issues and tenative hypotheses (these are on the margins, not of the fact itself).

This basic knowledge is not only necessary to understand evolution, but is needed to evaluate sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, Darwinian psychiatry, Darwinian literary theory, the revised concept of a "human nature," why the practice of medicine is shifting to a Darwinian orientation, why so much Western intellectual speculation, tradition, and metaphysics is now detritus, etc. It's senseless and wasteful to argue with anti-evolutionists, just as it is senseless and useless to argue with the Flat-Earth Society. The anti-evolutionists' cavils merely distract in order to divert the dialogue, while Darwinian evolution goes beyond the obvious fact of evolution; and with its insights uproots, refocuses, and reorients us in many other significant ways, so that the seemingly-intractable problems of racism, sexism, homophobia, environmental hazards, utopian schemes, useless and wasteful "health" schemes, etc. can be approached honesty and candidly from fact, not from myth or Armageddon.

The strengths are its unrelenting scientific language, cohering the sub-disciplines and outside disciplines into one interdisciplinary, but primarily biological, explanation of evolution with exacting specificity. (The Glossary is both necessary and helpful.) It delineates the known from the consensus to the tentative. It suggests only a few of the wider implications, and creative and imaginative readers will add others. But just as important, the facts of evolution do not merely "add" to our knowledge, they change some our cherished conceptual inheritances, and require we rethink in a different mode. The spectacular ability to do all this in a single volume makes it indispensible as the paradigm shift continues.

Highly recommended.

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John Mooney

Superb, with 2 Caveats.

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2015

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I read this as someone with a Ph.D. in philosophy with special interests in the frontiers between philosophy and science. I also read it as a believing Catholic Christian with a graduate degree in theology who accepts evolution as factual--that is, as the most reasonable explanation of the origins and diversity of biological species--and also holds that the fact of evolution is not at odds with belief in God or an authentic understanding of Scripture. Empiricism (focusing solely on spacial-temporal objects, and trying to explain them solely in spacial-temporal terms) is the powerful and totally legitimate method of science. A philosophical problem arises only if that methodological empiricism becomes, without convincing argument, a metaphysical empiricism (the affirmation that nothing is real beyond the spatio-temporal world).

I finished the book feeling that I had taken an upper-division undergrad honors course in evolutionary biology from a professor who was key in formulating the contemporary Darwinian synthesis--which is exactly what the scientists cited in Mayr's NY Times obit called him. Mayer clearly and thoroughly addresses both the big picture questions and their supporting evidence and arguments. He is also astonishingly candid about the remaining gaps in evolutionary science. He is aware of many of the philosophical issues involved in biology in general and evolution specifically. I urge anyone interested in evolution to read this book.

However, I recommend that "What Evolution Is" be read with two caveats. First, Mayr's discussion of theological views on evolution is limited to summary dismissals of creationism and its frequent basis, Scriptural literalism. Jewish and Christian theological traditions, ancient and new, are much richer and nuanced than Mayr seems to realize.

Secondly, Mayr has simplistic views of some key philosophical issues and, more importantly, seems unaware when he moves from biological reasoning to philosophical reasoning. I'll cite just three examples.

1) In rejecting the philosophical notion of "type" in biology, his understanding of "type" seems to be based on the extreme "realism" of Plato, which held that types (Plato's term was "forms") were otherworldly, independent of their this-worldly instantiations, and unchanging. Plato's disciple Aristotle rejected Plato's extreme view of forms and articulated a nuanced version of formal causality that I believe is compatible with evolutionary thought. In fact, it might enhance and complete Mayr's population-based account of speciation.
2) Along with many contemporary biologists, Mayr rejects the notion of "finality" as an explanatory principle in biology because, as he repeatedly says, empirical research has found no mechanism in organisms that could explain goal-directed biological development. Yet Mayr discusses dozens of processes within organisms (meiosis, mitosis, regulatory genes, etc.) whose remarkable goal-directedness goes unexplained. And, though he initially states that "natural elimination" is a more accurate term than "natural selection," he repeatedly (perhaps unconsciously) portrays natural selection as an agent-factor that leads to a general (though not universal) trajectory (finality) toward greater complexity and stability. Here again, Aristotle has a nuanced notion of formal causality that could be a friend rather than an enemy.
3) Which leads to a discussion of Mayr's most fundamental philosophical unawareness: his repeated treatment of "chance" (especially in the occurrence of phenotypical variation but also in biological survival) as an explanation. Proper philosophical analysis shows that chance is not an explanation at all but rather rather an admission of ignorance in the face of potential causal factors too many and complex to know at this time. To claim that chance is the FINAL explanation of something is simply to claim that there can be no further, deeper questions.

The forms of creationism that I've studied have, consciously or unconsciously, have tried to introduce versions of theological or philosophical reasoning into evolutionary science's empirical method--an illegitimate methodological process. Mayr, as marvelous as he is, has at key points, consciously or unconsciously, moved beyond science's legitimate empirical method and made (or assumed) unargued philosophical assertions--again, methodologically illegitimate. Thus, both Mayr and many forms of creationism are often stuck in a muddle of methods.

8 people found this helpful

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J. Montell

Excelente

Reviewed in Mexico on September 5, 2023

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Da una muy buena idea de la evolución, aunque algo técnica para los legos.

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Roberto B

Un testo completo

Reviewed in Italy on June 17, 2023

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Finalmente un libro che copre tutte le questioni e spiega chiaramente la storia e lo sviluppo dell'Evoluzione che non è più una teoria ma una realtà scientifica. Ottimo corredo di note terminologia e bibliografia

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A. Robson

Evollution and the EVIDENCE.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2019

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Very cogent and EVIDENCE BASED contents requiring concentration but it is a complex and detailed subject. Professor Mayr is hugely knowledgeable and a very good writer. Puts the religious brigade to shame. Clearly it was not all about two nudes in an orchard with a talking snake.

One person found this helpful

Pablo

A must for universitary biology students

Reviewed in Spain on September 24, 2016

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One of the best books about evolutionary theory in the market.

El libro no tiene traduccion al castellano. Una lastima, ya que es de excelencia cientifica.

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Morgana

gute Zusammenfassung

Reviewed in Germany on March 10, 2010

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Ernst Mayr war einer der Mitbegründer der modernen, sog. snythetischen Evolutionsbiologie. Demensprechend gut recherchierte, umfassende und viele Informationen enthält auch dieses Buch über Evolution.

Ich habe das Buch auf englisch gelesen, daher kann ich nichts über die deutsche Version sagen.
Insgesamt ist das Buch gut lesbar, auch wenn man es nicht von Anfang an durchliest, da Mayr die wichtigsten Punkte zu Beginn eines neuen Abschnitts nochmal wiederholt. Das ist auch mein einziger Kritikpunkt: für meinen Geschmack waren zu viele Wiederholungen drin.
Der Schreibstil ist leider recht trocken, was es (zumindest für mich auf englisch) wegen des Umfangs manchmal schwer lesbar werden lässt. Definitiv nichts, wenn man abends müde ist und noch ein paar Seiten lesen möchte.
Aber definitiv eine schöne Zusammenfassung der versch. Aspekte. Besonder gut hat mir gefallen, dass es ein Glossar mit wichtigen Begriffen gibt, sowie Anhänge über "Kritikpunkte and der Evolutionstheorie" (Kreationismus z.B.) und "häufige Fragen über Evolution" mit einer kurzen Antwort. Auch unsere Evolution wird im letzen Abschnitt des Buches erläutert. Die anderen Kapitel befassen sich mit der generellen Frage was Evolution eigentlich ist, wie evolutive Veränderungen und Angepasstheit erklärbar sind sowie der Entstehung und Evolution der Vielfalt.

Alles in allem ein sehr zu empfehlendes Buch (nicht nur für Biologie-Studenten, aber gerade auch). Ein Tipp für eine kürzere Annäherung an das Thema, das sehr witzig und gut lesbar ist (auch abends im Bett) ist das Buch "frogs, flies and dandelions: The making of species" des holländischen Evolutionsbiologen M. Schilthuizen.

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