On Thu, 27 Jul 1995 09:16:26 -0400 you wrote:
BH>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?
I would be interested in obtaining a full quote and reference to this.
It
does not sound like Mayr.
BH>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, non-evolutionists will be happy to watch this debate between
the Modern Synthesis and "the coming synthesis", within the
evolutionary paradigm, unfold. Johnson says:
"Darwinian evolution with its blind watchmaker thesis makes me think
of
a great battleship on the ocean of reality. Its sides are heavily
armored with philosophical barriers to criticism, and its decks are
stacked with big rhetorical guns ready to intimidate any would-be
attackers. In appearance, it is as impregnable as the Soviet Union
seemed to be only a few years ago. But the ship has sprung a
metaphysical leak, and the more perceptive of the ship's officers have
begun to sense that all the ship's firepower cannot save it if the
leak is not plugged. There will be heroic efforts to save the ship,
of course, and some plausible rescuers will invite the officers to
take
refuge in electronic lifeboats equipped with high-tech gear like
autocatalytic sets and computer models of self-organizing systems.
The
spectacle will be fascinating, and the battle will go on for a long
time. But in the end reality will win." (Johnson P.E., "Darwin on
Trial",
Second Edition, 1993, Inter Varsity Press, Illinois, p169-170)
and
"The sinking ship... The reference to "high-tech" damage-control
mechanisms is to the school represented by Stuart Kauffman's Origins
of Order (1993)...If the rulers of science really mean to jump into
this
lifeboat, I will be happy to participate in the ensuing discussion,
but
I think that after assessing the prospects they will elect to stay on
the sinking ship and keep trying to plug the holes." (Johnson, p213).
BH>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?
I really will have to try to get Goodwin's book.
God bless.
Stephen
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