Skepticism Is The Agent Of Reason Against

A Rare Book At Once Of Great Importance And Wonderful To Read.... Gould Presents A Fascinating Historical Study Of Scientific Racism, Tracing It Through Monogeny And Polygeny, Phrenology , Recapitulation, And Hereditarian Iq Theory. He Stops At Each Point To Illustrate Both The Logical Inconsistencies Of The Theories And The Prejudicially Motivated, Albeit Unintentional, Misuse Of Data In Each Case.... A Major Addition To The Scientific Literature.

The History Of Life Is More Adequately Represented By A Picture Of 'punctuated Equilibria' Than By The Notion Of Phyletic Gradualism. The History Of Evolution Is Not One Of Stately Unfolding, But A Story Of Homeostatic Equilibria, Disturbed Only 'rarely' (i.e. Rather Often In The Fullness Of Time) By Rapid And Episodic Events Of Speciation.

If You Defend A Behavior By Arguing That People Are Programmed Directly For It, Then How Do You Continue To Defend It If Your Speculation Is Wrong, For The Behavior Then Becomes Unnatural And Worthy Of Condemnation. Better To Stick Resolutely To A Philosophical Position On Human Liberty: What Free Adults Do With Each Other In Their Own Private Lives Is Their Business Alone. It Need Not Be Vindicated And Must Not Be Condemned By Genetic Speculation.

Hyper-selectionism Has Been With Us For A Long Time In Various Guises; For It Represents The Late Nineteenth Century's Scientific Version Of The Myth Of Natural Harmony All Is For The Best In The Best Of All Possible Worlds (all Structures Well Designed For A Definite Purpose In This Case). It Is, Indeed, The Vision Of Foolish Dr. Pangloss, So Vividly Satirized By Voltaire In Candide The World Is Not Necessarily Good, But It Is The Best We Could Possibly Have.

Pictures Are Not Incidental Frills To A Text; They Are Essences Of Our Distinctive Way Of Knowing.