> Actually, contrary to popular misconception he didn't originate the idea, he merely >popularized it. It's now considered fairly mainstream, and part of the "New >Synthesis".
I knew he didn't come up with the initial idea when I wrote my previous post but I got lazy. However, I am correct in stating that Gould is not considered mainstream amongst evolutionists, and in particular, punctuated equilibrium is not widely accepted in evolutionist circles. This extract shows criticism of Gould's theories by other evolutionists: http://www.theexperiment.org/articles.php?news_id=1791 "After once proclaiming that Dr. Gould had brought paleontology back to the high table of evolutionary theory, Dr. John Maynard Smith, an evolutionary biologist at University of Sussex in England, wrote that other evolutionary biologists "tend to see him as a man whose ideas are so confused as to be hardly worth bothering with." Sometimes these criticisms descend into so-called "Gould-bashing" where the charges are as personal as intellectual. Punctuated equilibrium, for example, has been called "evolution by jerks." " This extract calls Gould a gadfly amongst evolutionists: http://www.id.ucsb.edu/fscf/LIBRARY/JOHNSON/Brockman.html "I don't want to emphasize either the explicit or implicit dissents from Darwinism, however, because the most revealing remark about Darwinism in The Third Culture comes from a Darwinist of unimpeachable authority, George Williams. Williams is much less visible to the public than Dawkins or Gould, but he is more authoritative in the profession than either. Along with John Maynard Smith and William Hamilton, he is at the summit of the inner circle of evolutionary biology, in a realm where Gould is regarded as a gadfly and Dawkins is something of a junior partner. Williams and Hamilton earned their preminent status by pioneering the gene-centered Darwinism that Dawkins popularized with such success in The Selfish Gene." ========= Mark Gregson [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========= -- _______________________________________________ Get your free email from http://mymail.operamail.com Powered by Outblaze ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
