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 avatar](/pub/profile/avatars/21/6221/405386221.jpg)
Wonderful! Gould was brilliant, and this is one of his best.
![dnhowarth avatar](/pub/profile/avatars/52/8552/340928552.jpg)
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?