Tracey W. reviewed Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin on + 14 more book reviews
An ethical humanist and evolutionist, Mr. Gould demonstrates that, contrary to popular opinion, progress and increasing complexity are not characteristic of the evolution of life on earth.
Alison J. (Alison) reviewed Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin on + 551 more book reviews
Wonderful! Gould was brilliant, and this is one of his best.
David H. - , reviewed Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin on + 174 more book reviews
The interesting part for me was the discussion of why the decline and now absence of the .400 hitter is good for baseball. It's a matter of statistics that demonstrates the improvement of the game at all other levels -- an understandable argument when talking about games with rules. That however left me wondering about his use of statistics to describe and justify the role of natural evolution in life -- but then perhaps is Gould saying that it too is a game with rules?