Steven J. Gould is widely considered a modern evolutionary
biologist of comparable public stature to Richard Dawkins. I would hold Ontogeny
and Phylogeny (Gould 1977), among the half dozen most
influential biology books I have read in my zoological career. The compelling poetical language is a
great bonus. Yet I am puzzled by his understanding of adaptation spelled out in
Wilson’s Ladder (Gould 1987) p34.
He considers the attempt to understand adaptation has failed
due to what he calls a Panglossian Adaptationism. These Panglossians, he
believes, are engaged in an enterprise to label every trait adaptive, purely as
an act of belief. These assertions of adaptation he calls Just So Stories from the
famous stories for children by Rudyard Kipling (Kipling 1902). Incidentally, it is strange
that Gould appears to miss the point to these stories – they are pure Lamarckism.
Something could have been made of this.
But this is a quibble. What is fundamental is his
misrepresentation of the nature of scientific research. We all know that
scientific research requires a testable hypothesis as a starting point. An
assumption of adaptation by so called Panglossians is just such a starting
point; it is an hypothesis, not a conclusion. Any hypothesis stands or falls after
rigorous testing. This is how the hypothetico-deductive process in science works
(Medawar 2006) p12-32. I believe Gould is wilfully
misunderstanding the matter. This may be one of his bits of mischief such as the fuss over
punctuated equilibria (Eldredge and Gould
1972). And reading John Tyler Bonner today (1 November 2018), I find support for my contention (Bonner 1993), pp61-62.
I therefore reject Gould’s
worries about adaptation. A much better appraisal of the difficulties involved
in a proper understanding and identification of adaptation is given by George
Williams encapsulated in the term teleonomy (Williams 1966).
References
Bonner, J. T. (1993). Life Cycles. Reflection of an Evolutionary Biologist. Princeon Univesity Press.
Eldredge, N. and S. J. Gould (1972).
Punctuated Equilibria: an Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism. Models in
Paleobiology. T. J. M. Schopf. San Francisco, Freeman Cooper: 82-115.
Gould, S. J. (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. London,
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Gould, S. J. (1987). An Urchin in the Storm. London,
Collins Harvill.
Kipling, R. (1902). Just So Stories. London,
MacMillan and Co.
Medawar, P. (2006). The Strange Case of the Spotted Mice
and Other Classic Essays on Science. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection.
Princeton, Princeton University Press.
