Ontogeny and Phylogeny

The book purchased was a used copy of Stephen Gould's "Ontogeny and Phylogeny" in paperback. The book was no surprise since I knew what it was. Condition was as advertised, I think, but was excellent at any rate. Delivery was within a reasonable time. So this was a very satisfactory transaction from my point of view, excellent book for a reasonable price within a sensible time period. What else to expect?

One of the best of Dr. Gould's books, and there are many. Good science very well explained.

Excellent copy and shipped fast. This is one of the books that I have been waiting to read. clean book.

"Ontogeny recapitulates philogeny" is the largely defunct theory that as a fetus grows it reprises the collected earlier adult states of its evolutionary forebears.And this book is not so much about that theory as it is about the history of how the theory was proposed, its influence on other learning and the process of its demise.In this way, this book is properly bracketed with Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate in its discussion of the all too not empiracal process of empiracal reasoning. Its also reminiscent of Percival Lowell's assertion that canals existed on Mars because just as Lowell largely saw what he was predisposed to see early biologists like those mentioned in this work were themselves predisposed to see what they were predisposed to see.Yes, the theory rose and fell but perhaps Gould's most telling discussion was in his treatment of how the theory came to misused for educational and political purposes. If the fetus recapitulated its evolutionary past, then perhaps children in prominent countries capitulated in their behavior the cultures of less prominent countries. And so, child's play was just a stage reminiscent of aboriginal social interaction and a child's make believe world was their real life religion.Deep stuff.What Gould could have added were the other abuses made on the still existent theory of Darwinian evolution wherein turn of the century aristocrats fancied themselves the socially fittest of the species. Again, we have an example of science placed at the easy service of prejudice.However, and this is where Gould's discussion gives cause for hope, being a scientific theory it fell because it failed to pass muster with scientific techniques of testing.And in this way, Gould's book is not so much about the passing of a scientific idea as it is about the use of the technique of empiracal testing and not predisposition to determine truth.

This is one of the three most influential books I've read in the last 20 years."The world was a better place when I was young," "Kids today are worse than they were 20 years ago," are two of the more egregious examples I hear of people confusing ontogeny (development of an individual) with phylogeny (development of a type or collective). The world has always been a complicated and widely mixed placed. It is far more likely for an individual's perceptions to change in the course of a lifetime than the world that we perceive.Gould's essays (and books collecting them) are pleasant bits of fluff that entertainingly (and sneakily) deliver well-informed and timely bits of science. "Ontogeny and Philogeny" goes the next level down, using interesting bits of (mostly) science to deliver well-informed and timely bits of philosophy.I bought this book because I was curious about the relationship between ontogeny and philogeny. "Does ontogeny recapitulate phylogeny?" was on my mind. No, says Gould. Better, he describes what that relationship is. Along the way, he explains how humans are differentiated from other species (a topic well expanded by Jared Diamond in "The Third Chimpanzee").Gould starts with the history of science (Lamarck, Ernst Haeckel); philosophy (Anaximander, Aristotle); and psychology (Cesare Lombroso; Freud). He starts by showing the history of the perceived relationship between phylogeny and ontogeny. The illustrative bits of science follow as he discusses heterochrony and paedomophosis, showing how phylogeny relates to ontogeny, which I will grossly oversimplify: ontogeny selectively draws from phylogeny with occasional complete departures that may or may not be helpful (which is also true of the retained bits of phylogeny). The past may be selectively retained, but retaining one part does not necessitate the retention of all parts or even the relationship between the retained parts. Gould takes 409 carefully reasoned and well-written pages to get there. It's worth the trip.

Stephen Jay Gould's brilliance is evident as always in his ability to make the esoterics of great science available to people who have not thoroughly studied his field. He doesn't dumb it down, nor remove such huge slices that we are fools walking that dangerous tightrope of a little knowledge. Equal evidence of his genius is his broad base of real knowledge. He knows linguistics, for example; he would recognize that he does not know as much as Noam Chomsky, but he knows a great deal more than the typical lay person.He uses this knowledge at the beginning of this book to construct a carnival of phrenology and psychoanalysis that gives a social context to his later discussion of ontogeny and phylogeny. Looking at the subject of the title outside of this context would make a reader feel awfully disconnected from the people who believed this. It helps to rememeber that history is the story of a species and its learning process.One hundred years from now, people may know things that make them skake their heads at our use of protease inhibitors in treating AIDS, CD-ROM's in computer operations, or at the fact that only autistic kids, and not even all of them used weighted vests to develope proprioceptive skills.The book made me feel superior, and at the same time humbled. No single person is capable of what our species can do as a whole.

Great book full of science and delightful comments. It is not just a boring hard book but a funny one. Also the edition is marvelous. A book to have

Muito interessante do ponto de vista de análise do processo evolutivo

Basic books; must for every biologist. I used it in my studies about neandertals: the speciation problem. Late Gould has stayed my favorite for years. He has so clear thoughts !!!

C'est un des monuments de Gould. Les recherches historiques et les idées scientifiques sont incroyables. Mais attention, ce n'est pas un des nombreux livres géniaux de vulgarisation que Gould a écrit. Ce livre est réservé à un public averti.