The Meaning of Evolution: A Study of the History of Life and of Its Significance for Man, Revised Edition

by George Gaylord Simpson

A world-famous scientist answers the fundamental questions concerning the changes in the course of the history of life and considers human aims, values, and duties in the light of the nature of man and his place in the history of life.
"The clearest and soundest exposition of the meaning of evolution that has yet been written."―Ashley Montagu, Isis

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Evolution, Biology, Philosophy, History

386 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

George Gaylord Simpson, Ph.D. (Geology, Yale University, 1926), was Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona from 1968 until his retirement in 1982. Previously was Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University 1959–1970, Curator of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History 1945–1959, and Professor of Zoology at Columbia University.

He was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the Royal Society's Darwin Medal 'In recognition of his distinguished contributions to general evolutionary theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962. In 1966, Simpson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the original version from 1949. As you would expect, a lot of the information was outdated. It was still an interesting read, so the updated version is probably pretty good.

[Tony Lee Ross Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectures on Evolution from the 1950's. The information is obviously outdated nowadays, but it is interesting to see the extrapolations taken from Evolution at this time.

[T.J. Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lectures on Evolution from the 1950's. The information is obviously outdated nowadays, but it is interesting to see the extrapolations taken from Evolution at this time.

[Ushan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Popular lectures on the state of evolutionary biology circa 1951. Most of the book's theses have withstood the test of time: evolution has no direction; there are no inherent progressive tendencies in evolution; the evolution of the eye shows that even something simpler than the image-forming eye of vertebrates and octopodes is useful to its owner, so evolution did not have to form the image-forming eye all at once; some taxons ("races") change faster and some change slower; you'll find all these things in a modern popular book or textbook. I was surprised that the taxonomy of animals has been revised so much in the last 58 years. In this book, protozoans are animals, there is a phylum Coelenterata (it has since been split into Cnidaria and Ctenophora), Marsupialia is an order (it is now considered an infraclass, consisting of 2 orders of South American marsupials and 5 living and 2 extinct orders of Australian marsupials), and so on. In the last chapter Simpson says that the Nazis gave eugenics a bad name, and that "totalitarianism is wrong" because the relationship between the cells and the organism is very different from the relationship between the individual and the society. Really? The zooids in a Portuguese Man o' War are very much like cells in an organism; of course, humans are not hydrozoan zooids, but this difference is specific to our species, and is not dictated by the first principles of biology. And how do you practice eugenics on a mass scale without totalitarianism?

[Tomomi Landsman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this used book at Kew & Willow.

It was definitely interesting to read this book from the 1940s. After the atomic bomb but before the elucidation of the structure of DNA, this book gave me some perspective on what was known and being discussed at that time.

The subtitle of the book A Study of the History of Life and of Its Significance for Man is not on the cover, so I didn't realize that a great deal of the book would be dedicated to the implications evolution has on human ethics and politics. I feel like relating evolution to these concepts is misguided, and I didn't enjoy reading the many chapters spent on a connection that I don't see.

But the first part of the book that summarizes the understanding of evolution at the time was enjoyable. I was especially excited that George Gaylord Simpson intended this as a book for the layperson.

I really don't understand the figure on the right side of the cover.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Gaylord Simpson wrote some important works on evolutionary theory. This is an accessible work, relating the state of evolutionary theory at the time of the book's writing. Much has happened since this was published, but it still reads well and displays many of his insights.

The first part of the book outlines the course of evolution over time, from early life to the rise of the primates. Next, he discusses several aspects of how we might interpret evolution. Finally, a third part entitled "Evolution, HUmanity, and Ethics."

Certaionly, not all will agree with his perspective, but this represents a fine book in its time.