Michael Perelman writes: > Stephen Gould's is a great loss. He seems to have been an exceptional > person in many ways. He certainly has enriched my understanding of > economic processes, especially with his theory of the punctuated > equilibrium.
I loved Gould's work, especially his MISMEASURE OF MAN, a needed critique of IQ tests and the like. But I think though the theory of punctuated equilibrium is an important contribution to evolutionary theory, it isn't that important to economics. In economics, it's suspiciously akin to the standard idea of "comparative statics." (BTW, there was an article in SCIENCE & SOCIETY a few years ago, likening Gould's method to that of Marx.) By coincidence, on Sunday I saw "Charles Darwin: Live and in Concert," an amusing and informative one-man show done by Richard Milner, senior editor of NATURAL HISTORY magazine (cf. http://www.nhm.org/whatsnew/lectures/darwin.html) at the L.A. Museum of Natural History. As part of his show, he had a song about Gould, a school friend of his. We bought Milner's book and CD and had them autograph. Said I: "you're a ham -- like your friend Stephen J. Gould." Said he: "unfortunately, he's dying of cancer." Alas. Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
