Re: Adaptationism again

Paul Gallagher (pcg@panix.com)
12 Sep 1996 02:19:02 -0400

In <32359BF8.6DE9@megafauna.com> Stephen Barnard <steve@megafauna.com> writes:

>I don't really "dislike" Gould. I've enjoyed a great deal of his
>writings. I am getting increasingly annoyed at him, however, for a
>several reasons:

>- Relentless self-promotion, with one recycled notion of exaggerated
>importance after another, designed to overthrow orthodoxy (which isn't a
>bad thing in itself, but he tries too hard and keeps coming up short).

Since Gould has made substantial contributions to most of the topics in
evolutionary biology and paleobiology I'm intersted in, I disagree.

>- Blatant politicising of scientific questions, thereby implicitly
>questioning the motives of his opponents.

Somehow I think when people write about the biological basis of society,
the politics are there to begin with.

>- Straw-man argumentation.

No. Don't believe everything Dawkins tells you.

Is Dawkins becoming the new Ayn Rand? All these little Dawkins-ites
so sure they know everything!

Paul