http://www.freethought-web.org/ctrl/news/stephen_gould_additional.html
By Susie
Davidson
Advocate
Correspondent
NEW YORK -
Stephen Jay Gould, a Harvard paleontologist and evolutionary biologist known
for his modifications of Charles Darwin’s theories, died this past Monday
of cancer at age 60, in his home in New York. He had known since 1981 that he
had abdominal mesothelioma, a rare, lethal cancer associated with asbestos
exposure.
Among the
most well known and most widely read scientists of our day, Gould made great
contributions to evolutionary theory, as well as the philosophy and history of
science.
At Harvard,
where he was a professor since the age of 26, he was most recently the
Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology as well as a Professor of Geology, and
was also the curator for Invertebrate Paleontology at Harvard’s Museum of
Comparative Zoology. He was a Visiting Professor at NYU as well.
Gould also
sang every Monday night for many years with the Boston Cecilia choir.
The author
of Natural History magazine’s “This View of Life,” his 300
consecutive monthly columns, written from 1974 to 2001, were known for their
ability to communicate his own imaginative sense of curiosity to readers in a
scientific mode. “I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural
History,” collected these essays and includes details from his life,
including the story of his Hungarian grandfather’s journey to America
(which ended with the words used in the book’s title). Gould also wrote
over 20 best selling books and approximately 1000 scientific papers, on
everything from snails to baseball to Puritan theology. Earlier this year, his
1500-page “The Structure of Evolutionary Theory,'' which summarized his
life’s work, was published.
A New York
City native, Gould, the son of Jewish Marxist parents, graduated from Antioch
College and received a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1967. He identified himself as an
agnostic Jew. Although he would openly state that evolutionary biology said
nothing about the existence of G-d, he didn’t seem to hold much stake in
a designed evolutionary system, or the human race at all, for that matter.
"Humans are not the end result of predictable evolutionary
progress,” he wrote, “but rather a fortuitous cosmic afterthought,
a tiny little twig on the enormously arborescent bush of life, which if
replanted from seed, would almost surely not grow this twig again."
In March
1997’s “Natural History”, he wrote: “Science and
religion are not in conflict, for their teachings occupy distinctly different
domains.” He saw distinct roles for each field, and viewed each as
equally important.
“The lack of conflict between
science and religion,” he wrote, “arises from a lack of overlap
between their respective domains of professional expertise — science in
the empirical constitution of the universe, and religion in the search for
proper ethical values and the spiritual meaning of our lives. The attainment of
wisdom in a full life requires extensive attention to both domains — for a great book tells us that the
truth can make us free and that we will live in optimal harmony with our
fellows when we learn to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.”
Among the
numerous awards received by Gould were the MacArthur Foundation Prize
Fellowship, the Medal of Edinburgh, and the Silver National Medal of the
Zoology Society of London.
Gould
leaves his wife, Rhonda Roland Shearer, his two sons from a prior marriage, a
stepdaughter and stepson.
In a
statement released by Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers, he said “The
Harvard community and the world of science have lost a brilliant scholar whose
research helped redefine our notion of who we are and where we came from.''