In a highly influential essay, Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Lewontin (1979) coined the phrase “Panglossian paradigm” as a deliberately abusive term for the brand of biology—adaptationism—that relies on the methodological principle of assuming, until proven otherwise, that all the parts of an organism are good for something. That is, they have useful roles to play, such as pumping blood, improving speed of locomotion, fending off infection, digesting food, dissipating heat, attracting mates, and so forth. The assumption is built right into the reverse-engineering perspective that sees all
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