From: Chris Hibbert (hibbert@netcom.com)
Date: Wed Jan 27 1999 - 23:24:14 MST
A good exploration of how biologists think of Dawkins and Gould is in
"The Third Culture" by John Brockman. Brockman's thesis is that there
is a new emerging intellectual class that bridges C.P. Snow's "Two
Cultures" [*] and it's very explicitly a science-based culture.
Literate practicing scientists write up their work for this culture,
and manage to talk across disciplines. The people who used to read
Scientific American now constitute a significant audience among the
book-buying public, and some of the people writing for them are
significant researchers who can write clearly, and like talking
directly to the educated layman.
Brockman interviewed more than 20 impressive scientists who write for
this audience, and turned his transcripts into a conversation among
them. It seems to me to be both a good presentation of their
respective points of view, and a good presentation of their respective
views of each other. The core of the discussion covers evolutionary
biology, and focuses on the disagreements between Dawkins and Gould.
The biologists Brockman talked to seem to agree that Dawkins and Gould
typify two archetypal points of view that normally have trouble
communicating with one another. (According to Brockman) they agree on
how evolution works, but disagree on what's important to focus on
about it. Brockman claims it's partly a capitalist vs. socialist
thing. (and we should all be expected to take Dawkins' side. I do.)
Until I read Brockman, I thought of Stephen Jay Gould as "just a
popularizer," but he now appears to be truly a good scientist who has
contributed several crucial insights to the field, and has in addition
written approachable explanations of evolution for the scientifically
literate layman.
The other people Brockman presents in conversation in the book include
Several biologists, reaching as far afield as Lynn Margulis; Computer
Scientists including Marvin Minsky, Roger Schank, and Daniel Dennett,
(along with the misclassified Steven Pinker and Roger Penrose); half a
dozen physicists including Lee Smolin and Paul Davies; and systems
thinkers such as Murray Gell-Mann, Chris Langton, J. Doyne Farmer,
and Danny Hillis.
I recommend the book.
Chris
* C. P. Snow, "The Two Cultures", 1959. Snow pointed out the huge
gulf between the scientists and the literary culture. They both have
valuable points of view, but they don't talk to (or write for) each
other and they don't listen to (or read) each other.
--
Chris Hibbert It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup, but
hibbert@netcom.com not so easy to turn fish soup back into an aquarium.
-- Lech Walesa on reverting to a market economy.
http://www.aimnet.com/~hibbert/home.html
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