- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (4 Sep 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0099893606
- ISBN-13: 978-0099893608
- Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 1.7 x 19.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 519,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Life's Grandeur: Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
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Product Description
Book Description
'Reading Gould is not merely a pleasure but an education and a chronicle of the times' Observer
Product Description
In his characteristically iconoclastic and original way, Stephen Jay Gould 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 wonderful'. 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. (20041129)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
rather disappointing for Gould,
By A Customer
This review is from: Life's Grandeur: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin (Paperback)
I like Gould's collections of essays a lot. This "full-length book" however was rather disappointing. The main problem it suffers from is redundancy. First of all it is "internally" redundant, in the sense that Gould will stress certain points again and again. It's as if he's no too sure about the readers' intellectual capacities. Some good editing could have made this book half as short. Secondly, it's also "externally" redundant: a lot of what is in here can be found in essays in one of his excellent collections (e.g. if you've read the essays he wrote about his bout with cancer or about how batters in baseball haven't gotten worse, then don't bother reading this book). If you've never read Gould and you want to read something by him, I suggest you read one of the collections of essays (e.g. The Flamingo's Smile, or Bully for Brontosaurus)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great work by a great author.,
By Nathan Phillips - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Life's Grandeur: The Spread of Excellence From Plato to Darwin (Paperback)
This is yet another work by Stephen Jay Gould that is enlightening while entertaining. The importance of the main point of the book concerning misleading statistics can be applied in various parts of one's life. Although I am no fan of baseball, the baseball related examples do shed much light upon the subjects at hand.
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