Gould Book Club

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The EEB Grad Book Club Presents:



Musings on.....

The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

By Stephan Jay Gould

Gouldbook.jpg


Gould, S. J. 2002. The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University. 1433 p.


As biologists – and evolutionary biologists at that – we all strive to retain some knowledge of the historical underpinnings of our vast discipline (or multi-disciplines) plus, at the very least, we hope to maintain a cursory understanding of the complex ideas that render evolutionary biology a controversial field. At this informal gathering we will touch upon a number of those contentious topics, and conventional topics for that matter (it’s a given that Gould will have some unorthodox spin on those well-accepted areas), and voila – we will be better EEB graduate students because of it (even if we only improve our vocabulary skills). So bring your copy of Gould and a dictionary and meet us at ….

Meeting Time:

Fridays 5pm @ The Hale


Scheduled Readings:

Date Location Readings Pages
12 September The Hale (Chp 9) The Primary Claims of Punctuated Equilibrium: Data and Definitions; The Scientific Debate on Punctuated Equilibrium: Critiques and Responses pp 765, 784–812
19 September The Hale (Chp 8) The Grand Analogy: A Speciational Basis for Macroevolution; Presentation of the Chart for Macroevolutionary Distinctiveness; The Particulars of Macroevolutionary Explanation pp 714-724
26 September The Hale (Chp 8 continued...) Reproductive drive: directional speciation; Species selection, Wright's Rule and the power of interaction with directional speciation

pp 724-735

03 October The Hale (Chp 8 continued...) Species-level drifts as more powerful than the analogous phenomena in microevolution; The scaling of external and internal environments; Summary Comments pp 735-744
10 October The Hale Chp 10: Historical Constraints and the Evolution of Development; Constraints As a Positive Concept
*We are waiting on an interlibrary loan of Dennett
pp 1025-1037
17 October The Hale Dennett has arrived! Copy is in Roberta's mailbox for photocopying 17 pgs
24 October The Hale (Chp 10 continued...) Heterochrony and Allometry as the Locus Classicus of the first positive (empirical) meaning: channeled directionality by constraint pp 1037-1051
31 October TBA Halloween Break!
07 November CANCELLED
14 November The Hale (Chapter 10 continued...) The aptive triangle and the second positive meaning: constraint as a theory-bound term for the patterns and directions not built exclusively (or sometimes even at all) by natural selection pp 1051-1061
21 November TBA TBA
28 November Thanksgiving Break
5 December TBA TBA

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