The Lying Stones of Marrakech by Stephen Jay Gould

Author:Stephen Jay Gould
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781409000341
Publisher: Random House

Therefore my success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has been determined, as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental qualities and conditions.

Janet Browne did not write her book with such a theory of intelligence and accomplishment explicitly in mind, but her biography of Darwin explains his achievements better than any previous work because she has provided the requisite thick description of both the various attributes of mind (multiple intelligences) that motivated Darwin’s work and powered his conclusions, and the conjunction of numerous external factors that fed his triumph.

Darwin’s multiple intelligences: As the greatest veil-coverers of recent times, the Victorians did not only hide their sexual habits. More generally, they concealed most displays of passion about anything. Since passion may be the common ground for Darwin’s diverse strengths, and since he so carefully constructed an external persona of dispassionate gentility, this wellspring of his greatness can easily be missed. But the sheer accumulative density of Browne’s documentation eventually prevails.

We come to understand, first of all, Darwin’s enormous energy—whether overt and physical during his active youth on the Beagle, or cerebral when he became an invalid for most of his adult life. (Some people just seem to live at a higher plane of intensity, and must see most of us as we view the languorous world of a sloth—see chapter 4 on Buffon.) We often miss this theme with Darwin because he led such a quiet life as an adult and spent so much time prostrated by illness. But I am, of course, speaking about an internal drive. Our minds are blank or unproductive most of the time (filled with so much Joycean buzz that we can’t sort out a useful theme). Darwin must have been thinking with useful focus all the time, even on his sickbed. I don’t quite understand how this intense energy meshes with Darwin’s placidity of personality (as expressed so strongly from earliest days), the geniality that makes him so immensely likable among history’s geniuses—usually a far more prickly lot. Perhaps he just kept the prickly parts under wrap because he had been schooled as such an eminent Victorian. Perhaps (a more likely alternative, I think) emotional placidity and level of intrinsic energy just represent different and separable aspects of human personalities.

In any case, this “energy”—expressed as passion, range, thoroughness, zeal, even ruthlessness at times—drove Darwin’s achievements. He expressed the most overt form in roving over South America, trekking for weeks across mountains and deserts because he heard some rumor about fossil bones at the other end—and then, with equal restlessness, thinking and thinking about his results until he could encompass them in a broad theoretical conception. (For example, Darwin developed a correct theory for the origin of coral reefs—his first great contribution to science—by reading and pondering before he ever reached Pacific atolls for direct observation.)

Back in London, Darwin virtually moved into the Athenaeum Club by day, using its excellent library as his private preserve, reading the best books on all subjects from cover to cover.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.