The collections of Gould's essays from Natural History magazine are good, in that they manage to be both substantive but not too technical for an interested layperson. The only one of the books I actually have is The Flamingo's Smile, which I believe is the third collection, but they're probably all worth a read.
John Maynard Smith's Theory of Evolution is really good. I'm also very fond of Jonathan Wiener's The Beak of the Finch, which is more pop and less comprehensive than Maynard Smith's book. And I second the recommendation for Origin of Species --- Harvard publishes a handsome and affordable facsimile of the first edition, with a helpful introduction by Ernst Mayr.
Dragons of Eden is a good read, but many of the very intelligent guesses in it haven't panned out (or aren't verifiable at all). And Sagan's soft spot for marijuana makes him say some totally unsubstantiated shit in the drug's defense.
Re:3 -- Origin of Species is, of course, out of copyright, so it might be worth noting that it can be downloaded for free. I bet Project Gutenberg has it; I've also seen free e-book copies floating around. But I guess you probably want an actual physically holdable book. Luddite.
Let me second the rec for Ridley's textbook. It's lucid.
Matt Ridley's The Red Queen, about the evolution of sex, is not comprehensive but a good window into how people think in the evolutionary framework - and it's an excellent read.
I'd skip Gould as an intro - his schtick is to say, Yes Darwin explains this, but...
The Dawkins rec is good, though you might as well go straight for The Selfish Gene if you're going to read him. Dennett's Dawrin's Dangerous Idea is ok too if you like the Dawkins camp.
Yeah, you know, a lot of my non-scientist friends are immoderately fond of Gould, which I find a little unfortunate. I like him as a stylist, and as a congenial presence on the page, but I think Dawkins had much the better of that dispute when it was a dispute.
I picked Blind Watchmaker over Selfish Gene because it's more on point to the present debate. Selfish Gene is the book to read if you want to know why anyone would have started listening to Richard Dawkins in the first place.
I should add, I find Dawkins a good stylist and pleasant company on the page, too. Add to that, more nearly right than Gould, and you've got a compelling combination.
You do realize that somewhere in the bowels of Ft. Meade right now there is an Able Danger computer frantically assigning a probability to the proposition that the Mrs. Unf-to-be is a member of the "hedgehog impersonator" cell of Al Qaeda?
Don't do anything that will make the London police after the fact claim that you ran while wearing bulky clothing.
I agree with slolernr that Blind Watchmaker is probably the most on-point book. Maynard Smith is a good comprehensive overview if you really want to read something like that, but qua book, I don't think it's very good. My understanding is that Gould is held in very high regard by everyone except actual evolutionary biologists, so even though I enjoyed those of his books that I've read, I've gotten a little suspicious.
Given the wildlife-ridden nature of the DeLong estate, is hedgehog impersonation safe? I'd think that resembling a small animal would be a surefire way of getting eaten by a cougar around those parts (or a Painted Jaguar, whichever).
Or a person. It's quite simple really. One merely wraps the hedgehog in wet clay and tosses it into the smoldering ashes. When done, break the clay open and the quills will be stuck therein, leaving the flesh free for your delectation.
Unf -have no idea about the evolutionary theory/science thing. As you perhaps remember, am a metaphysician, if anything at all. Just wanted to chime in with my congratulations on the engagement, and best wishes for the nuptial. As ogged has perhaps told you, I am LOVING the married state, and highly recommend it! Much love to you both, and all the best!!!!!
I believe, though I'm a bit fuzzy on this, that it's a response to creationist Michael Behe's book Darwin's Black Box . Also excellent is Darwin's Dangerous Idea , by Daniel Dennett.
I'm not claiming that it's causal, but the very minute that I went offline, put all my shit into storage, and rode 1500 miles on the otherness-producing Greyhound to my family home, this site went all to shit.
I'll delurk here to suggest The Ancestor's Tale. It's much better then the Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, and much more comprehensive. If you want Dawkins, this is the book.
I'll also support Darwin's Dangerous Idea, as well as the Selfish Gene and Blind Watchmaker. As to the whole Dawkins vs. Gould question, they are both excellent, and their arguements were kind of trivial. After reading up on the basics, I'd suggest reading A Devil's Chaplain, where Dawkins has some great commentary on their arguments, as well as some other great stuff on Douglas Adams, his daughter, and a lot of other subjects.
"It doesn't matter if you never read one anything else of mine, please read at least *this*" [preface to The Extended Phenotype, preface to the 1989 edition]
In DDI DD repeated the slogan "Cranes, not skyhooks!!" several times too many.
He also accused Gould of being a Marxist theist urban Jew, which is wrong. (The Marxist theist Jew would be Adam Kotsko, except maybe for the Jewish part -- who knows for sure?)
The collections of Gould's essays from Natural History magazine are good, in that they manage to be both substantive but not too technical for an interested layperson. The only one of the books I actually have is The Flamingo's Smile, which I believe is the third collection, but they're probably all worth a read.
Posted by washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 10:51 AM
Talkorigins.org is a good place to start.
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 10:56 AM
Y'know, you could do a -lot- worse than just reading
_The Origin of Species_. I'm a computer scientist,
so biology is not my specialty. But wow, it was very
readable, and Darwin does an -amazing- job of
explaining it.
What was most amusing to me, was that Darwin
did such a good job of answering criticisms that
are raised to this day (like: "why do whales have
baleen").
Really, it's quite approachable.
Posted by Chet | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 10:56 AM
Start with Genesis, mofo.
Posted by Kriston | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:04 AM
Elliott Sober, _Philosophy of Biology_
Posted by phred | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:17 AM
Boy, ask and ye shall receive.
Turnabout is fair play: Dawkins addressed his Blind Watchmaker specifically to explaining why and how complexity could evolve without a designer.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:25 AM
It is not exactly what you were asking for but Carl Sagan's "Dragons of Eden" is a darn good book about the evolution of human intelligence.
Posted by Tripp | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:33 AM
John Maynard Smith's Theory of Evolution is really good. I'm also very fond of Jonathan Wiener's The Beak of the Finch, which is more pop and less comprehensive than Maynard Smith's book. And I second the recommendation for Origin of Species --- Harvard publishes a handsome and affordable facsimile of the first edition, with a helpful introduction by Ernst Mayr.
Posted by Cosma | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:34 AM
Dragons of Eden is a good read, but many of the very intelligent guesses in it haven't panned out (or aren't verifiable at all). And Sagan's soft spot for marijuana makes him say some totally unsubstantiated shit in the drug's defense.
Re:3 -- Origin of Species is, of course, out of copyright, so it might be worth noting that it can be downloaded for free. I bet Project Gutenberg has it; I've also seen free e-book copies floating around. But I guess you probably want an actual physically holdable book. Luddite.
Posted by tom | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:47 AM
This book is pretty well written for a textbook. It is a good choice if you like algebra. It is expensive, but earlier editions are cheap on abebooks.
Posted by Joe O | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 11:51 AM
Let me second the rec for Ridley's textbook. It's lucid.
Matt Ridley's The Red Queen, about the evolution of sex, is not comprehensive but a good window into how people think in the evolutionary framework - and it's an excellent read.
I'd skip Gould as an intro - his schtick is to say, Yes Darwin explains this, but...
The Dawkins rec is good, though you might as well go straight for The Selfish Gene if you're going to read him. Dennett's Dawrin's Dangerous Idea is ok too if you like the Dawkins camp.
Posted by rilkefan | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 12:15 PM
Yeah, you know, a lot of my non-scientist friends are immoderately fond of Gould, which I find a little unfortunate. I like him as a stylist, and as a congenial presence on the page, but I think Dawkins had much the better of that dispute when it was a dispute.
I picked Blind Watchmaker over Selfish Gene because it's more on point to the present debate. Selfish Gene is the book to read if you want to know why anyone would have started listening to Richard Dawkins in the first place.
I should add, I find Dawkins a good stylist and pleasant company on the page, too. Add to that, more nearly right than Gould, and you've got a compelling combination.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 12:19 PM
You do realize that somewhere in the bowels of Ft. Meade right now there is an Able Danger computer frantically assigning a probability to the proposition that the Mrs. Unf-to-be is a member of the "hedgehog impersonator" cell of Al Qaeda?
Don't do anything that will make the London police after the fact claim that you ran while wearing bulky clothing.
I'm just sayin...
Posted by Brad DeLong | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 12:25 PM
I agree with slolernr that Blind Watchmaker is probably the most on-point book. Maynard Smith is a good comprehensive overview if you really want to read something like that, but qua book, I don't think it's very good. My understanding is that Gould is held in very high regard by everyone except actual evolutionary biologists, so even though I enjoyed those of his books that I've read, I've gotten a little suspicious.
Posted by Matthew Yglesias | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 12:59 PM
just sayin
Brad, are you now impersonating stuffed rabbits as well as live hedgehogs?
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 1:00 PM
Unf is so clutch.
Posted by Sam K | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 1:50 PM
Given the wildlife-ridden nature of the DeLong estate, is hedgehog impersonation safe? I'd think that resembling a small animal would be a surefire way of getting eaten by a cougar around those parts (or a Painted Jaguar, whichever).
Posted by LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:09 PM
Or a person. It's quite simple really. One merely wraps the hedgehog in wet clay and tosses it into the smoldering ashes. When done, break the clay open and the quills will be stuck therein, leaving the flesh free for your delectation.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:15 PM
That's profoundly appalling. I'd rather you went back to clubbing dolphins.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:20 PM
You'll thank me when you're a hobo.
Posted by ben wolfson | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:22 PM
I don't like that "when." Say "kenahora," and spit.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:28 PM
17: the World's Silliest Dog appears to survive somehow. Presumably inordinately tall and broad faux hedgehogs can also get by.
Posted by slolernr | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 2:31 PM
Another Dawkins book that addresses the question pretty well is _Climbing Mount Improbable_.
Posted by Hank | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 3:11 PM
Unf -have no idea about the evolutionary theory/science thing. As you perhaps remember, am a metaphysician, if anything at all. Just wanted to chime in with my congratulations on the engagement, and best wishes for the nuptial. As ogged has perhaps told you, I am LOVING the married state, and highly recommend it! Much love to you both, and all the best!!!!!
Posted by exbeforelast | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 6:18 PM
Blind Watchmaker , of course.
I believe, though I'm a bit fuzzy on this, that it's a response to creationist Michael Behe's book Darwin's Black Box . Also excellent is Darwin's Dangerous Idea , by Daniel Dennett.
Posted by Cala | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 6:26 PM
I'm not claiming that it's causal, but the very minute that I went offline, put all my shit into storage, and rode 1500 miles on the otherness-producing Greyhound to my family home, this site went all to shit.
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 08-19-05 10:35 PM
I'll delurk here to suggest The Ancestor's Tale. It's much better then the Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker, and much more comprehensive. If you want Dawkins, this is the book.
I'll also support Darwin's Dangerous Idea, as well as the Selfish Gene and Blind Watchmaker. As to the whole Dawkins vs. Gould question, they are both excellent, and their arguements were kind of trivial. After reading up on the basics, I'd suggest reading A Devil's Chaplain, where Dawkins has some great commentary on their arguments, as well as some other great stuff on Douglas Adams, his daughter, and a lot of other subjects.
Posted by ChrisC | Link to this comment | 08-20-05 5:04 AM
Dawkins' own recommendation:
"It doesn't matter if you never read one anything else of mine, please read at least *this*" [preface to The Extended Phenotype, preface to the 1989 edition]
Posted by Ignatius Reilly | Link to this comment | 08-21-05 6:09 AM
I didn't think "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" was very good. It seemed too theoretical. I would go with one of Dawkins books before that.
Posted by joe o | Link to this comment | 08-21-05 8:07 PM
In DDI DD repeated the slogan "Cranes, not skyhooks!!" several times too many.
He also accused Gould of being a Marxist theist urban Jew, which is wrong. (The Marxist theist Jew would be Adam Kotsko, except maybe for the Jewish part -- who knows for sure?)
Posted by Anonymous | Link to this comment | 08-21-05 8:13 PM