Guide to Topics Covered Preface What Is the Meaning of Life? What Is Science? How Does Science Explain the Natural World? How Does Biology Explain the Living World? Does Science Advance? How Are the Life Sciences Structured? "What?" Questions: The Study of Biodiversity "How?" Questions: The Making of a New Individual "Why?" Questions: The Evolution of Organisms What Questions Does Ecology Ask? Where Do Humans Fit into Evolution? Can Evolution Account for Ethics? Notes Bibliography Glossary Guide to Topics Covered Acknowledgments Index
Another many-faceted gem from the Sage of twentieth century biology. A readable life history and philosophy of biology, this original composite of science and scholarship illuminates every aspect of its great subject. Not least, it simply demolishes the millennial myth of 'the end of science.' -- Robert K. Merton Ernst Mayr has done it again. In a graceful style that replaces the arcane with the clear, he presents the structure of the diverse biological disciplines in a historical and philosophical frame that does not evade the issue of hominid evolution and its unique moral characteristics. Loyal fans of this eminent scholar will find themselves smiling at the beauty and wisdom in this synthesis of fact and ideas. -- Jerome Kagan In this brief and very readable book, one of the grand masters of twentieth-century biology sums up the personal wisdom accumulated during seventy years of research and reflection. -- Edward O. Wilson
Ernst Mayr was Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. He was the recipient of numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Crafoord Prize for Biology, the National Medal of Science, the Balzan Prize, and the Japan Prize.
[A] lovely book...[It] is a long essay on how biologists study
living things on the large scale of organisms and their families.
Its range is enormous...This is an old-fashioned book, to be read
slowly, more than once, and to be thought about afterward. Isn't
that what books are for--so that people can, at their leisure,
consider the hard-learned thoughts of a beautifully educated, smart
old man?
*New York Times Book Review*
As would be expected from Mayr, the text achieves considerable
richness and depth. Academic readers will appreciate a
sophisticated level of cross-disciplinary analysis, and all readers
will enjoy a lucid style of presentation...This is Biology is yet
another illustration of one of Mayr's most celebrated talents: his
power to transform a vast amount of complex knowledge into its
engaging and illuminating essence. As a product, the science of
biology is left in clear perspective and is liberated from many
stereotypical attributes that are traditionally associated with
science as a whole. Practising professionals and students alike
should benefit immeasurably from reading this book.
*The Ibis*
Another many-faceted gem from the Sage of twentieth century
biology. A readable life history and philosophy of biology, this
original composite of science and scholarship illuminates every
aspect of its great subject. Not least, it simply demolishes the
millennial myth of 'the end of science.'
*Robert K. Merton*
Ernst Mayr has done it again. In a graceful style that replaces the
arcane with the clear, he presents the structure of the diverse
biological disciplines in a historical and philosophical frame that
does not evade the issue of hominid evolution and its unique moral
characteristics. Loyal fans of this eminent scholar will find
themselves smiling at the beauty and wisdom in this synthesis of
fact and ideas.
*Jerome Kagan*
Mayr, emeritus professor of zoology at Harvard and a major
contributor to contemporary evolutionary understanding, manages to
condense the involved history of biological thought into this
treatise.
*Publishers Weekly*
In this brief and very readable book, one of the grand masters of
twentieth-century biology sums up the personal wisdom accumulated
during seventy years of research and reflection.
*Edward O. Wilson*
Ernst Mayr, the world's greatest living evolutionary biologist and
a writer of extraordinary insight and clarity, gives us, in the
tenth decade of his own rich life, his distillation of a full
career spent in thought and study of his favorite subject.
*Stephen Jay Gould*
This Is Biology is an excellent attempt on Mayr's part to bring
biology to a common focus and to help define what characteristics
distinguish living systems from inanimate matter. This is an
extremely well-thought-out and eminently scholarly work. It will be
of significant value to those who wish to understand the
philosophical underpinnings of biology, how biological questions
are addressed, how the various subdisciplines came into existence,
and how they are related. It is also a very personal work due, in
no small part, to Mayr's own seminal contributions over the years
to several biological topics.
*Science Books and Films*
We are fortunate that one of the great evolutionary biologists of
the 20th century has taken the time to set down his reflections on
biology as he has seen it develop for the last three-quarters of a
century. Mayr is not afraid to tackle the difficult issues of a
definition of life, a description of the modern theory of
evolution, punctuated equilibrium, ontologic recapitulation,
sociobiology, cladistics, and the descent of man, to name a
few...This is an erudite, carefully reasoned account of what a
naturalist considers to constitute biology penned by one of the
great evolutionary biologists of the century. It is well worth a
read.
*Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease*
He is acknowledged to be one of the great zoologists of the 20th
century. His contributions to evolutionary biology have been
recognised by a dazzling collection of the world's most prestigious
scientific awards...Now 92, Ernst Mayr has written a wide-ranging
review of biological thought and progress. In part, This Is Biology
is a study of the philosophy of biology, and in part a history of
selected branches of the subject...This is a magisterial account of
biology, by a great biologist.
*New Scientist*
[Mayr's] summary of the early history of evolution is excellent,
particularly of Darwin's monumental contribution. His analysis of
the concept of speciation, a key feature of evolution, is excellent
and he has contributed much to this area...The most interesting
chapter raises questions about the relationship between ethics and
evolution.
*Times Higher Education Supplement*
In this wide-ranging book, Ernst Mayr, one of the doyens of
evolutionary biology, raises many important questions about the
nature of biological research. He examines them in a scholarly yet
approachable way...This is a book designed to make one think...Mayr
raises the fascinating question of how we humans have been able to
change our society so remarkably in the past thousands of
years--occupying many niches of climate and geography--without much
change in our gene pool. It is just one of the many unanswered
questions that course through his fertile brain and have found an
outlet in this volume.
*Nature*
In this deeply thought-provoking book, [Mayr] records his thoughts
about the philosophical underpinnings of his beloved field of
biology and muses about some of the changes he sees coming as his
colleagues delve more deeply into both the molecular basis of life
and the complex web of interacting agents that make up the global
ecosystem...[I]n the last few chapters, Mayr moves to a more
speculative mode and addresses himself to questions such as the
place that humanity has in the grand evolutionary scheme, and the
question of whether there is a sense in which human ethical systems
can be accounted for by evolution...I wouldn't dream of spoiling
your fun by trying to summarize Mayr's complex and well-thought-out
views on these [questions]...The book covers so many topics that
there is something here for everyone.
*Boston Globe*
This Is Biology...explicates the field as only this historian,
philosopher and biologist could.
*New York Times*
[A] lovely book...[It] is a long essay on how biologists study
living things on the large scale of organisms and their families.
Its range is enormous...This is an old-fashioned book, to be read
slowly, more than once, and to be thought about afterward. Isn't
that what books are for--so that people can, at their leisure,
consider the hard-learned thoughts of a beautifully educated, smart
old man? -- Ann Finkbeiner * New York Times Book Review *
As would be expected from Mayr, the text achieves considerable
richness and depth. Academic readers will appreciate a
sophisticated level of cross-disciplinary analysis, and all readers
will enjoy a lucid style of presentation...This is Biology
is yet another illustration of one of Mayr's most celebrated
talents: his power to transform a vast amount of complex knowledge
into its engaging and illuminating essence. As a product, the
science of biology is left in clear perspective and is liberated
from many stereotypical attributes that are traditionally
associated with science as a whole. Practising professionals and
students alike should benefit immeasurably from reading this book.
-- Barnaby Marsh * The Ibis *
Another many-faceted gem from the Sage of twentieth century
biology. A readable life history and philosophy of biology, this
original composite of science and scholarship illuminates every
aspect of its great subject. Not least, it simply demolishes the
millennial myth of 'the end of science.' -- Robert K. Merton
Ernst Mayr has done it again. In a graceful style that replaces the
arcane with the clear, he presents the structure of the diverse
biological disciplines in a historical and philosophical frame that
does not evade the issue of hominid evolution and its unique moral
characteristics. Loyal fans of this eminent scholar will find
themselves smiling at the beauty and wisdom in this synthesis of
fact and ideas. -- Jerome Kagan
Mayr, emeritus professor of zoology at Harvard and a major
contributor to contemporary evolutionary understanding, manages to
condense the involved history of biological thought into this
treatise. * Publishers Weekly *
In this brief and very readable book, one of the grand masters of
twentieth-century biology sums up the personal wisdom accumulated
during seventy years of research and reflection. -- Edward O.
Wilson
Ernst Mayr, the world's greatest living evolutionary biologist and
a writer of extraordinary insight and clarity, gives us, in the
tenth decade of his own rich life, his distillation of a full
career spent in thought and study of his favorite subject. --
Stephen Jay Gould
This Is Biology is an excellent attempt on Mayr's part to
bring biology to a common focus and to help define what
characteristics distinguish living systems from inanimate matter.
This is an extremely well-thought-out and eminently scholarly work.
It will be of significant value to those who wish to understand the
philosophical underpinnings of biology, how biological questions
are addressed, how the various subdisciplines came into existence,
and how they are related. It is also a very personal work due, in
no small part, to Mayr's own seminal contributions over the years
to several biological topics. -- Mitchell K. Hobish * Science Books
and Films *
We are fortunate that one of the great evolutionary biologists of
the 20th century has taken the time to set down his reflections on
biology as he has seen it develop for the last three-quarters of a
century. Mayr is not afraid to tackle the difficult issues of a
definition of life, a description of the modern theory of
evolution, punctuated equilibrium, ontologic recapitulation,
sociobiology, cladistics, and the descent of man, to name a
few...This is an erudite, carefully reasoned account of what a
naturalist considers to constitute biology penned by one of the
great evolutionary biologists of the century. It is well worth a
read. -- J. Edward Rall, M.D. * Journal of Nervous and Mental
Disease *
He is acknowledged to be one of the great zoologists of the 20th
century. His contributions to evolutionary biology have been
recognised by a dazzling collection of the world's most prestigious
scientific awards...Now 92, Ernst Mayr has written a wide-ranging
review of biological thought and progress. In part, This Is
Biology is a study of the philosophy of biology, and in part a
history of selected branches of the subject...This is a magisterial
account of biology, by a great biologist. -- R. McNeill Alexander *
New Scientist *
[Mayr's] summary of the early history of evolution is excellent,
particularly of Darwin's monumental contribution. His analysis of
the concept of speciation, a key feature of evolution, is excellent
and he has contributed much to this area...The most interesting
chapter raises questions about the relationship between ethics and
evolution. -- Lewis Wolpert * Times Higher Education Supplement
*
In this wide-ranging book, Ernst Mayr, one of the doyens of
evolutionary biology, raises many important questions about the
nature of biological research. He examines them in a scholarly yet
approachable way...This is a book designed to make one think...Mayr
raises the fascinating question of how we humans have been able to
change our society so remarkably in the past thousands of
years--occupying many niches of climate and geography--without much
change in our gene pool. It is just one of the many unanswered
questions that course through his fertile brain and have found an
outlet in this volume. -- David Baltimore * Nature *
In this deeply thought-provoking book, [Mayr] records his thoughts
about the philosophical underpinnings of his beloved field of
biology and muses about some of the changes he sees coming as his
colleagues delve more deeply into both the molecular basis of life
and the complex web of interacting agents that make up the global
ecosystem...[I]n the last few chapters, Mayr moves to a more
speculative mode and addresses himself to questions such as the
place that humanity has in the grand evolutionary scheme, and the
question of whether there is a sense in which human ethical systems
can be accounted for by evolution...I wouldn't dream of spoiling
your fun by trying to summarize Mayr's complex and well-thought-out
views on these [questions]...The book covers so many topics that
there is something here for everyone. -- James Trefil * Boston
Globe *
This Is Biology...explicates the field as only this
historian, philosopher and biologist could. -- Carol Kaesuk Yoon *
New York Times *
Mayr (zoology, Harvard; One Long Argument, LJ 10/1/91) offers a critical overview of the major concepts and issues surrounding biology from Aristotle to the present in terms of emergence and organicism. He stresses both the uniqueness and the importance of the life sciences, distinguishing between ultimate and proximate causations in organic history. Rejecting vitalism, teleology, essentialism, and supernaturalism, he focuses on "population thinking" as well as variation and selection within a neo-Darwinian worldview. Special attention is given to the philosophy of science, especially the ideas of progress and limits. Other topics include genetics, cytology, evolution, development, and biodiversity. The excellent chapters on ethics, ecology, and human evolution emphasize the value of scientific evolutionism. Unfortunately, Mayr does not discuss exobiology, molecular biology, or genetic engineering, and more illustrations (there is only one) would have been helpful. Recommended for academic and large public biology collections.‘H. James Birx, Canisius Coll. Lib., Buffalo, N.Y.
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