Re: [Fwd: Stephen Jay Gould is dead]

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 20 May 2002 16:11:03 -0400, Mark Lause wrote:
>A great and personal loss to every eclectic
>reader and thinker.  Didn't I read somewhere
>that he described himself openly as a socialist?

Mark, since others might have the same question, I am going to reply
to the list. As might be predictable, the NY Times neglected to
mention Gould's strong ties to the left. He was on the board of
advisers of the Brecht Forum and spoke there frequently. I have a
post on his last appearance there:

http://www.columbia.edu/~lnp3/mydocs/ecology/gould.htm

Gould once told an interviewer that he learned Marxism "at his
daddy's knee". Although most people are familiar with his work in
evolutionary biology, which does not exactly connect in an *obvious*
way with Marxism, he did write a tremendously important book that is
more directly engaged with radical politics, namely "Mismeasure of
Man" which is a passionate refutation of ideas about the genetic
inferiority of blacks, etc.


--
Louis Proyect, lnp3@xxxxxxxxx on 05/20/2002

Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org



~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.