MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 04971cam 2200733 a 4500
001 ocm36350639
003 OCoLC
005 20201120041832.0
008 970121s1996 enka b 001 0 eng
040 $aUKM$beng$cUKM$dNLGGC$dYDXCP$dAU@$dOCLCQ$dOCLCF$dOCLCO$dOCLCQ$dOCL$dEUW$dOCLCQ$dLIP$dOCLCO$dOCLCQ$dDHA$dOCLCA$dOCLCQ$dOCLCO$dOCLCQ$dOCLCA$dUK5EZ$dOCLCQ
015 $aGB9708548$2bnb
019 $a1101318770$a1107743292
020 $a0224041320
020 $a9780224041324
035 $a(OCoLC)36350639$z(OCoLC)1101318770$z(OCoLC)1107743292
050 4 $aQH366.2$b.G6595 1996
082 04 $a576.8$221
084 $a42.21$2bcl
100 1 $aGould, Stephen Jay.
245 10 $aLife's grandeur :$bthe spread of excellence from Plato to Darwin /$cStephen Jay Gould.
246 3 $aExcellence
260 $aLondon :$bJonathan Cape,$c1996.
300 $axx, 244 pages :$billustrations ;$c24 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 231-237) and index.
500 $aRequested CIP title: Excellence.
505 0 $aPart One. How shall we read and spot a trend? -- 1. Huxley's chessboard -- 2. Darwin amidst the spin doctors -- 3. Different parsings, different images of trends -- Part Two. Death and horses: two cases for the primacy of variation -- 4. Case one: a personal story -- 5. Case two: life's little joke -- Part Three. The model batter: extinction of 0.400 hitting and the improvement of baseball -- 6. Stating the problem -- 7. Conventional explanations -- 8. A plausbility argument for general improvement -- 9. 0.400 hitting dies as the right tail shrinks -- 10. Why the death of 0.400 hitting records improvement of play -- 11. A philosophical conclusion -- Part Four. The modal bacter: why progress does not rule the history of life -- 12. The bare bones of natural selection -- 13. A preliminary example at smallest scale, with some generalities on the evolution of body size -- 14. The power of the modal bacter, or why the tail can't wag the dog -- 15. An epilog on human culture.
520 1 $a"In his characteristically iconoclastic and original way, the bestselling author of Wonderful Life and Bully for Brontosaurus argues that progress and increasing complexity are not inevitable features of the evolution of life on Earth. Further, if we wish to see grandeur in life, we must discard our selfish and anthropocentric view of evolution and learn to see it as Darwin did, as the random but unfathomably rich source of 'endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful.'
520 8 $aWhat do a drunkard's walk, the prognosis for Stephen Jay Gould's own cancer, Goethe's observation that 'trees cannot grow to heaven', the evolution of the modern horse, and the continuing dominance of bacterial life on the planet have in common? In Gould's hands, such seemingly disparate topics are tools that shape a unified and rational picture of nature that is often at odds with what we intuitively 'know' to be true.
520 8 $aLife's Grandeur is abundant with the fascinating arcana of palaeontology and biology, the subtleties of mathematical analysis, and the heroic achievements of baseball players and the occasional scientist. But behind it all, as always in Gould's popular writing, is a passionate belief in the completion of an intellectual revolution. Such a view may encourage us to see ourselves as closer than a gibbon to the ideal of life; but we flatter ourselves. We can and should appreciate human glory in human spheres. But any rational view of nature tells us that we are a simple branch on an immense bush; and that life on Earth is remarkable not for where it is leading, but for the fullness and constancy of its variety, ingenuity and diversity."--Jacket.
650 0 $aEvolution.
650 0 $aVariation (Biology)
650 2 $aBiological Evolution.
650 2 $aGenetic Variation.
650 2 $aPhilosophy.
650 7 $aEvolution.$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst00917265
650 7 $aVariation (Biology)$2fast$0(OCoLC)fst01164189
650 17 $aEvolutietheorie.$2gtt
650 17 $aVooruitgang.$2gtt
650 17 $aFilosofische aspecten.$2gtt
938 $aYBP Library Services$bYANK$n1349100
029 1 $aAU@$b000011447691
029 1 $aCBK$b05623497X
029 1 $aHEBIS$b052608743
029 1 $aNLGGC$b154232955
029 1 $aNOK$b0224041320
029 1 $aNZ1$b4602348
029 1 $aUKBCI$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKBNS$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKBOR$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKDEL$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKDON$b0224041320
029 1 $aUKDOR$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKPTR$b0224041320
029 1 $aUKSCO$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKSGC$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKSOM$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKTLS$b05623497X
029 1 $aUKWLT$b291491
029 1 $aUNITY$b05623497X
994 $aZ0$bP4A
948 $hNO HOLDINGS IN P4A - 153 OTHER HOLDINGS