Re: Disowning Darwin

Brian D. Harper (bharper@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Thu, 27 Jul 1995 09:16:26 -0400

Stephen quoted Michael Denton quoting Ernst Mayr :

>`...all evolution is due to the accumulation of small genetic changes
>guided by natural selection and that transpecific evolution is nothing
>but an extrapolation and magnification of the events which take place
>within population and species...' (Mayr E., "Animal Species and
>Evolution", 1963, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, p586)
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In _How the Leopard Changed its Spots_, Brian Goodwin quotes Mayr
as saying:

(There is)"no clear evidence...for the gradual emergence of
any evolutionary novelty" -- Mayr quoted by Goodwin

unfortunately without giving a reference, not unusual for a popular
level book. Would anyone happen to know where Mayr says this?

Goodwin disagrees with Mayr [in Denton's quote] saying that microevolution
is guided by natural selection whereas macroevolution [origin of novelties]
occurs by principles of self-organization and does not require natural
selection.

Actually there are a lot of interesting and controversial things in
Goodwins book. For example, while not quite disowning Darwin, he
suggests that Darwin ruined biology by changing it from a hard science
to a historical science. Has anyone read this book?

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